Bulgaria among the most unprepared EU countries to deal with natural disasters

Mila Grigorova

Last week Bulgaria got an EU Commissioner, responsible for the humanitarian operations of the European Union in cases of disasters and crises worldwide. Our country also responded appropriately to one of the largest charity media campaigns aiming at raising funds for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

But how would people in Bulgaria react if we encounter a natural cataclysm of significant scale?
It turns out that that Bulgarians are afraid of earthquakes and floods much more than Europeans and that they are far less prepared to deal with the consequences of these catastrophes.
This becomes evident from data of a Eurobarometer survey, conducted in the 27 EU members states at the end of 2009 ordered by the European Commission.

Earthquakes and floods topped the ranking of the worst disasters, according to the Bulgarian public opinion. A total of nearly 80% of Bulgarian citizens are afraid of devastating earthquakes. The events surrounding the "predicted" earthquake in Haskovo last Easter proved that even a threat of an alleged earthquake was able to generate mass panic and confusion. In the EU, only the Greeks are more worried than us when it comes to earthquakes.

Overall, the average European is most afraid of floods and then of heavy storms, with hails. In these cases, however, the proportion of respondents who were scared seriously was between 40-45%, i.e. every second respondent, while in Bulgaria this figure was significantly higher. Earthquakes are considered as a serious risk respectively only by 22% of Europeans. Some 8% of European citizens as a whole said that they were not seriously worried of any natural or 'man-made' disaster. As a comparison - the proportion of the "completely calm” people in Bulgaria is negligibly low.

In other words, Bulgarians are among the most genuinely afraid of crises and catastrophes nations in Europe: in addition to the economic crisis, it appears that we are afraid of natural disasters as well, although we are not threatened by sinking as Venice nor are we located close to active volcanoes, for example. It is therefore somewhat paradoxical that, according to the survey, we are among the most unprepared to react in such cases.
Although virtually all Bulgarians are afraid of one or another natural disaster, their level of preparedness is one of the lowest in Europe.

Only some 8% of Bulgarian citizens have thought personally about how to prepare themselves in the occurrence of a natural disaster. For example, that they must keep at home first-aid kits or even flashlights. Our people occupy the second last position among EU members states with this level of training. The Cypriots are the nation, best prepared to respond to crisis situations - almost half of the respondents there said they had some equipment at their disposal and the respective knowledge to deal with disasters. The percentage of trained to react at disasters citizens - at least these with minimal equipment at home, among the EU inhabitants, as a whole, is more than twice higher than that in our country – 20% compared to 8 %.

An explicit question about peoples’ readiness to react in cases of disasters was not posed in this edition of the Eurobarometer survey. However, we can assume that the basic knowledge of Bulgarians on the issue (how would they behave in cases of natural disaster) is limited primarily to the findings of the old anecdote from socialist time: You should take a white sheet and head to the nearest mortuary park. Unfortunately, this macabre joke may become true in a case of disaster in our country. We suppose that the tragedy in Haiti provides the occasion for Bulgarian institutions to start thinking about ensuring some - at least simple, mass and affordable literacy for Bulgarians on what to do first in the case of a natural disaster.