Engineers have said that 88% of all homes damaged in Sunday's earthquake and then surveyed by them will be fine to return to. The structural engineers have been working on behalf of the City of Zagreb and have so far examined about 2,000 buildings. Up until now, they have released assessments for just over 1000 of these.
Some buildings developed cracks in their plaster and walls following the earthquake and it is therefore necessary for them to be judged as habitable or not. The good news is that the vast majority of all damaged residential buildings so far assessed can be returned to by the people who live there. Unfortunately, this also means that 12% of the buildings so far judged cannot again be used as residencies in their present condition.
Zagreb's centre holds many older dwellings and some of these were among the worst damaged. Fortunately, most people in the city live in reinforced concrete buildings which are constructed in order to withstand seismic activity of this kind. Some buildings are still awaiting assessment by the engineers.