Skopje marks Sunday 63 years since the devastating earthquake, which leveled much of the city on this day in 1963, killing over 1,000 people and leaving 3,000 injured.
The earthquake, which measured 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale, equivalent to 6.9 on the Richter scale, occurred on 26 July 1963 at 5:17 am local time. The tremor lasted for 20 seconds and was felt mostly along the Vardar River Valley. Smaller aftershocks were felt until 5:43 am. More than 15,000 homes and apartments were destroyed in the quake, and 28,000 were damaged. The disaster left 200,000 people homeless, many of them forced to seek shelter and others waiting in improvised tent cities until prefab housing was made available.
The International Red Cross appealed to all national organizations to organize food deliveries, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union recommended to all parliaments and governments to help in the reconstruction of the city. Humanitarian organizations from many countries have begun collecting aid for Skopje. The United Nations coordinated the support effort to provide planned and long-term assistance to the devastated city.
