The victim of the Neftegorsk earthquake told how she survived under the rubble

Help “MK”: An earthquake in Neftegorsk with a magnitude of 7.6 occurred on the night of Sunday, May 28, 1995 at 1.04. It completely destroyed the settlement in just 17 seconds. More than 500 people were rescued from the rubble. 1958 people died out of 3000 living in Neftegorsk. It was decided not to restore the village, now in its place is a memorial in memory of the dead.

Nadezhda Sushko was 22 years old when she miraculously survived that earthquake, which was comparable in strength to the state of emergency in Turkey.

– When you watch the news from Turkey now, do you draw any parallels with the Sakhalin tragedy?

– Looking at the footage that is now in Turkey, I can say that this is one to one earthquake in terms of power, which occurred in Neftegorsk, judging by the destruction. Of course, you can’t watch this without tears, I only do what I watch the news. I feel sorry for people, you involuntarily put yourself in their place and remember what happened to you.

– Are the destructions in Neftegorsk similar to those we see in reports from Turkey?

– Yes. There were 17 houses in the village, 4 of them were two-story, and they were less destroyed, but the five-story buildings were formed like houses of cards. They were just mountains of rubbish. Our house was on the edge, and more survivors were taken out of it, because it was possible for vehicles to drive up from the edge. In those houses that are in the middle of the village, much less survived. Moreover, 4 houses were completely burned down because there was a gas leak. When the rubble was cleared, only bones were found. I look at the destruction in Turkey and understand that it is very difficult for rescuers to work there, because the buildings are dense.

– Are you now internally experiencing all this again?

– Yes, in my own way. This is very scary, a person who has not experienced this will not understand. I remember that in 1988, when a terrible earthquake occurred in Armenia, we were still at school and collected help for them, books and clothes. But I could not imagine that in 7 years this would happen to me.

– Now in Turkey and Syria, the search for survivors is still going on. What do you think, what are the chances of people who were under the rubble?

– Of course, now it is harder for people. First of all, because winter – you yourself understand hypothermia of the body. One in a thousand chance of survival, I think. Although there were cases when people were taken out and after 5, and 7 days they were taken out alive, if the person’s legs and arms were not injured and he could move. For example, my sister and child spent 3 days without water and food. And we have many such cases of miraculous salvation.

– The earthquake in Neftegorsk lasted 17 seconds, describe them.

– In the apartment in which I was, there were 7 people, I survived alone. It’s scary, just scary. I did not immediately understand that this was an earthquake, I thought that the house exploded from the gas. I was taking a shower at that moment, reached for a towel and heard a rumble. I looked up and saw cracks on the ceiling, for a few more seconds the light was on, I sat down in the bath – and that’s it, I was dragged down. And then everything collapsed, in a matter of seconds.

– What happened to you under the rubble?

– When everything collapsed, maybe there was silence for a minute, and then the screams began, the moan “Save me, help me”. It was hell, to be honest. I had some kind of gap next to me, someone looked into it and said: hold on, a lot of people filled up, this is an earthquake. Then there were the aftershocks. At first I sat straight in the bathroom, and after them the stove began to press harder and reached my head. It was terribly cold, there was no water in the bathroom, I was thirsty. I lost consciousness for a while, and when I woke up, I started screaming: “Save me, I don’t want to die,” and a neighbor heard me. I was completely naked, and the hand that I reached for the towel ended up behind the bathroom and was practically torn off.

– Who got you in the end?

There were no lifeguards then. As far as I understand, people from the nearest villages were the first to come to the rescue. There was a crane nearby, and with its help they began to rake the blockage. I was there for 16 hours.

– Whom did you lose in that earthquake?

– In the apartment there were my mother and stepfather, me with my little son, who was one and a half months old at that time, my younger sister with her husband and with a nine-month-old child. Of all of them, I survived alone. There was life, there was a small homeland, where your classmates, neighbors were. (Crying) In 17 seconds, your life turned upside down, you lost everything. Just everything. I lost 12 relatives. We were five sisters, only two survived. Mom was taken alive on June 1, but her legs were amputated, and on June 5 she died.

– What happened to you after the earthquake?

– I was sent to the city of Okha, then by air ambulance to Khabarovsk, where I was in the hospital for six months. The arm was amputated. At first, for 2 weeks, the doctors tried to save it, but failed, so I am now with one arm.

The first three years were the strongest psychological trauma, everything is in a fog. But in 1999 my son was born, and life began anew. Since 2005 I have been working at a school in Khabarovsk, teaching geography. Despite everything, life went well.