According to careful estimates, in the last earthquake to strike Bucharest, 2,500 people lost their lives; exact calculations, however, have shown that some 4,000 people perished beneath the ruins. This number would have been reduced by 500 if the city had acted contrary to the express orders of the official of the Bucharest administration responsible for these things to bulldoze the rubble of the hotel that was totally destroyed rather than to clear it away, and had actually cleared the rubble away. For a whole week after the earthquake, people could still hear the cries of hundreds of those who had been buried coming from the rubble. The official of the city administration had the area around the hotel cordoned off until he received reports that absolutely nothing more was stirring beneath the rubble and not a single sound was still to be heard from the rubble. Not until two and a half weeks after the earthquake were the people of Bucharest permitted to view the heap of rubble, which was completely bulldozed in the third week. The official is said to have refused, on grounds of expense, to rescue some 500 guests of the hotel who had been buried. Rescuing them would have cost a thousand times more than bulldozing, even without taking into account the fact that probably hundreds of severely injured people would have been brought out from the rubble who would then have had to be supported by the state for the rest of their lives. According to reports, the official had, in the nature of things, assured himself of the support of the Romanian government. His promotion to a higher position in the civil service is said to be imminent.

Civil Service

CIVIL SERVICE