1977 Vrancea earthquake

The collapsed Computer Center building

Block OD16 seen before (above) and after (below) the earthquake from the KH-9 satellite

The city center saw the greatest destruction and loss of life, since the earthquake particularly affected multi-storey buildings, mostly apartment buildings. Iconic interwar structures along the Bulevardul Nicolae Bălcescu – Bulevardul Magheru axis, such as the Scala, Dunărea, and Casata buildings, and the nearby Continental-Colonadelor and Nestor buildings, completely or largely collapsed, while portions of others gave way.[8] Out of the 33 multi-storey buildings that collapsed, 28 were built between 1920 and 1940, a period when earthquake-resistant design was unknown. Two buildings which collapsed were built in the communist era: a building from the Lizeanu housing complex (built in 1962) had a small section of it collapse during the earthquake because a support column was cut at one of the end sections of the building (ground floor, at a store), leading to that section eventually being demolished and mostly never rebuilt, and an apartment block in Militari named OD16 and built around 1972–1975 fully collapsed due to construction defects (at the time sub-standard concrete had been found used in the said building, and air pockets were formed in the concrete during construction, and even a boot was found in the concrete).[9] Three public buildings, the Ministry of Metallurgy, the Faculty of Chemistry, and the Computer Center also collapsed, but were not heavily staffed at the time of the earthquake.[10] On 5 March, the first toll of the disaster indicated 508 fatalities and 2,600 injuries.[11] A final toll showed that 90% of the victims were from Bucharest: 1,424 deaths and 7,598 injuries.[12][13]

No catastrophic fires occurred, but electrical power was lost in large areas of the city for about a day. Nine of 35 hospitals were evacuated.

In the cities of Focșani and Buzău, unreinforced masonry walls in low-rise construction collapsed partially or totally, and there were signs of movement between structural elements and adjacent masonry in-fill walls in recently constructed buildings.

The city of Zimnicea was reported to be in ruins: 175 houses collapsed, while 523 sustained serious damage, 4,000 people were displaced, and there were hundreds of victims.[11] In as much as 80% of the city was destroyed, Zimnicea was rebuilt from the ground.[14] In Craiova, more than 550 buildings were severely damaged, among them the Museum of Art, the Oltenia Museum, the University and the County Library. Initial estimates indicate a total of 30 dead and 300 wounded.[11] Vaslui also suffered heavy losses, both human – seven people dead, and material.[15]

In Ploiești around 200 homes were destroyed, and a further 2,000 were seriously damaged; the situation was also serious in Buzău County, where about 1,900 buildings were affected.[11] In Plopeni, a Worker's Dormitory made of masonry totally collapsed, killing 30 to 60 workers and injuring many.[10] Counties in Transylvania and Dobruja showed no serious damage.

The earthquake induced geomorphological phenomena in southern, eastern and northern Wallachia, as well as southern Moldavia. These consisted in landslides, liquefaction, settlements, water spurting; in the Vrancea Mountains, the course of the Zăbala River was partially blocked, forming a small natural dam lake.[16]

The earthquake of 4 March heavily impacted Bulgaria. The city of Svishtov was the most affected. Here, three blocks of flats collapsed, killing up to 120 people, among them 27 children.[17] Many other buildings were damaged, including the Church of the Holy Trinity.[18] In Ruse, the tremors were strong but there was little damage; only one person perished, hit by a huge architectural ornament that fell down from a nearby building.

According to official data, 2,765 buildings were destroyed in the Moldavian SSR, while 20,763 buildings suffered significant damage.[19][20]