Armenia Earthquake Anniversary
Thirty years ago, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook the Armenian Republic of the Soviet Union, with a force so violent that nearly half a million buildings were reduced to rubble. Although the quake occurred halfway around the world, it made U.S. history and became a turning point for USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.
On December 7, 1988, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the northern part of the Armenian Republic in what was still part of the Soviet Union. Considered one of the strongest earthquakes in the region in 80 years, it destroyed nearly 60 villages, and the Soviet Union estimated that 25,000 people died — although the unofficial death toll was believed to be much higher. Here’s three reasons why we remember this history-making response:
1. Historic Moment for U.S.-Soviet Relations
USAID, through its Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to coordinate the U.S. government’s response to the Armenian earthquake.
Turns out, this would be the first time since World War II that the Soviet Union accepted disaster assistance from the U.S. government.
The DART, which arrived in Soviet Armenia two days after the disaster struck, included USAID disaster experts, as well as urban search and rescue (USAR) teams with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, who worked with local officials to find survivors.
The USAR teams were welcomed by their hosts.
“During the evening, the Armenians start to bring us gifts of food, cheese, bread, fruit, and some wine. It was not unusual for the Russian soldiers who guarded our camp and equipment to join us in the evening by the fire. They were curious about George Bush, Michael Jackson, football, hockey, and Mike Tyson.”
- Donald Booth, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Technician, from article “To Russia With Love,” Line Copy Special Edition 1989
USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance also provided critical supplies, including heavy-duty plastic sheeting, medical supplies, tents, cots, hand tools, blankets, and water containers.
To ensure these supplies got to areas of need, USAID requested the special capabilities of the U.S. Department of Defense to airlift supplies, medevac survivors, and provide additional emergency commodities. The U.S. military conducted six flights to transport relief supplies and rescue gear from USAID’s emergency stockpiles in Maryland and Italy, as well as from U.S. military stockpiles in Europe.
In total, the United States provided nearly $9.5 million in assistance in response to the earthquake in Armenia.
2. Hope Emerges from the Rubble
Twenty-seven urban search and rescue (USAR) personnel and eight canines deployed to Soviet Armenia, where they had to endure sub-freezing temperatures, communications problems, and a significant language barrier to find survivors. The lack of sleep, cold and extrication efforts took its toll.
“I’ll never forget standing outside a collapsed three-story building…that had been a grade school. The vast majority of the school’s children died in the rubble as three-quarters of the building collapsed. The earthquake occurred at 11:41 on Wednesday morning. The interpreter began crying as she relayed that had the earthquake occurred five minutes later, most of the children would have survived. All schools let their students outside for recess at 11:45 a.m.”
- Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Tamillow, from article “To Russia With Love,” Line Copy Special Edition 1989
And then, they got word that a 60-year-old woman was found alive in the rubble.
“We were elated!” wrote Batallion Chief Tamillow in a first-person account of the mission which was published in a department newsletter. However, this would not be an easy rescue. Not only was the woman trapped up to her knees by the concrete rubble, she had the dead bodies of an infant and a young girl pinned beside her. It took the team five hours to save her.
As they were looking to leave the rescue site, the crew got word that a young girl had been found alive in another building a few blocks away. The exhausted crew quickly rushed to the scene to save her. “Luckily, it turned out to be a fairly simple extrication that took less than half an hour,” wrote Tamillow. “It had been a long day.”
These two survivors had been trapped beneath the rubble for five or six days before the U.S. team helped do the impossible for them and their families.
3. New Way of Working
Our response to the earthquake in Armenia represents the first time in USAID history that we deployed urban search and rescue (USAR) teams as part of our international response. Prior to that, there was no formal USAR system in place both domestically and internationally, and USAR teams were unaccustomed to responding to disasters outside their jurisdiction.
However, because first responders to a disaster have the potential to save the most lives, in 1988, USAID decided to partner with USAR teams to deploy overseas on short notice, based on needs identified on the ground. USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance currently has cooperative agreements with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue in Virginia, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Since then, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance has deployed USAR internationally approximately 17 times, most recently for the 2017 Mexico earthquake, the 2015 Nepal earthquake, and the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
Some of the members of the original “U.S. Rescue Team” have deployed on other international disasters, but this particular response is one many have not forgotten.
“I know I speak for all of the Fairfax County members of the U.S. Rescue Team when I say I was proud to be a part of this effort,” wrote Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Tamillow.
His fellow teammate Lieutenant Dan Bickham echoed, “I have never been more proud to be an American.”
USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance responds to an average of 65 disasters in more than 50 countries every year. Read more about USAID’s international disaster response efforts.
