In the last 24 hours the Red Cross has distributed 12,600 tonnes of food in Sisak-Moslavina County, Minister Tomo Medved, who heads the task force for dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December quake, told press on Saturday morning.

In the last 24 hours, 12,600 tonnes of food has been distributed, including 18,580 hot meals for the population in the quake-affected area and 2,377 meals to emergency services and personnel on the ground, Medved told the specialised radio broadcast dedicated to the developments in Sisak-Moslavina County since the devastating quake and aftershocks.

He added that a viable plan was being devised to have long-term solution for providing food and meals and thanked all cooks, chefs and hospitality businesses that arrived in the county immediately after the quake to help in preparing meals for people who were left homeless in the disaster.

On Friday, 86 heaters plus five gas-powered generator units were also delivered, and 295 psychological counselling services were offered, while the relevant services visited 11 villages, hamlets and settlement in 24 hours, Medved said.

Currently, 1,914 members of emergency services are being deployed in the area concerned. Those are personnel of the Civil Protection, Firefighting Community, the HGSS Mountain Rescue Service, Red Cross, police, army service people, engineers and so on.

Commenting on the local economy, Medved said that the meat processing company Gavrilovic did its business as usual.

Additional HRK 160 million for job-retention scheme for quake-affected businesses

The government has in the meantime set aside 160 million kuna to help businesses in the quake-hit area. They will be covered by the job-retention grants of 4,000 kuna per employee per month. An estimated 20,000 workers are likely to be encompassed by this measure, and thus HRK 160 million should be set aside for this purpose in the first two months of 2021.

Prefab containers being provided

Medved said that to date 297 mobile homes had been dispatched to the quake-hit county, and an additional 70 containers were expected to arrive from Turkey to Croatia in the course of Saturday or Sunday. He also praised private donations and initiative to provide temporary accommodation for quake victims.

Thus about 550 different types of objects have to date been made available for the temporary accommodation, according to Medved.

One-off grants for quake-affected households

The Labour Ministry has set aside the necessary amount of financial aid for quake-affected households, and single-person households are entitled to one-off grant in the amount of 2,500 kuna and households with more members can apply for a grant of HRK 3,500. So far, 2,800 applications have been received and a half of them have been processed.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)