As if the world being taken over by a pandemic in the form of a coronavirus wasn’t enough, the Earth has, once again, thrown a curveball at humanity to see how much it takes to break us. “This Episode of Black Mirror Sucks” has become a popular meme online as all generations label 2020 as one of the most disappointing years of the 2000s so far. The year started off with the Australian fires that spread all across the country, a threat of World War III between the US and the Middle East and the COVID-19 pandemic, of course,. And just when you think 2020 has brought enough disasters to last us a lifetime, on the 22nd of March Croatia has been hit by a large-scale Earthquake, shattering an already disheartened population. 

According to BBC News, “the 5.3-magnitude quake is the largest to affect the city in 140 years.” The shock and of the Earthquake brought people out onto the streets in groups, as the rules to stay home and avoid contact with other people imposed by the threat of the pandemic were forgotten for fear of being hurt amidst the confusion. Not only did the earthquake cause chaos to fill the streets in Zagreb but many hospitals needed to be evacuated and, as stated in The Guardian, “footage showed mothers dressed in nightgowns hugging their new-born babies in a car park as they evacuated a damaged maternity hospital during freezing temperatures. The women, new-born babies and incubators were being moved to a new location with the help of the army.” 

According to the news articles, there was one critical causality, a 15-year-old, and several others injured. The damage was mostly done to buildings as these collapsed, crushing cars ad starting fires all around the city. It was reported that “Zagreb’s cathedral was also damaged, with the top of one of its two spires collapsing. The structure was rebuilt after it toppled in the 1880 earthquake.” 

The interior minister, Davor Božinović, was especially concerned with the fact that this natural disaster occurred at the same time as the ongoing pandemic, stating that “there are rules for when there is an earthquake, but when there is an earthquake at the same time when there is a global pandemic, then it’s a much more complex situation,”. Croatia will certainly need time to recover from the catastrophe and in the meantime do their best to contain the spread of the virus.