In the early morning of Sunday April 15, 1979 at 07:19am local time, a destructive earthquake measuring 9.5 on Mercalli scale (equivalent to 7.2 on Richter scale), centred fifteen kilometers from the coast between Bar and Ulcinj, hit Montenegro — the most important earthquake in Yugoslavia’s modern history, heavily devastating in only ten seconds country’s ancient coastal towns including Bar, Budva, Herceg-Novi, Kotor and Ulcinj, and virtually razing over 450 villages. Further inland, damages were caused to the old royal capital of Cetinje, Titograd (now Podgorica), up to Nikšić and Danilovgrad in central Montenegro. 101 people were killed (35 in Albania), 500 to 1,000 wounded, and at least 100,000 people were made homeless. Over 1,600 cultural monuments suffered in the catastrophe as well as thousands of works of art and valuable collections : icons, paintings, rare books, illuminated manuscripts, delicate fabrics and embroideries, sacred gold and silver works, ancient jewellery, church vestments, wood carvings and sculptures... The official estimate of total damages was $3.7 billion.

Face to the social, economic and cultural disaster and to the immensity of post-earthquake rebuilding task, quite beyond resources of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on its own, international aid was quickly organised — coming from 80 foreign countries including the Soviet Union, and international organisations (UNESCO, the World Bank, etc.) — in the form of money, medical, engineering and building teams and supplies.
Notably, the United States of America donated over $11-million financial aid out of which $10 million were devoted to reconstruction and equipping programs of schools and health care institutions in several Montenegrin towns. From April 19 to 20, 1979 — supervised on-site by former American Ambassador to Yugoslavia during Jimmy Carter’s administration, H.E. Mr. Lawrence S. Eagleburger [1] — an U.S. airlift delivered over 130 tons of emergency relief supplies to Montenegro (tents, beds, 20,030 blankets, electrical generators, water pumps, water cleaning devices, etc.).
In addition to governmental aids, a $300,000 total donation was received from American voluntary organisations (American Red Cross, Church World Service, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Seventh-day Adventist Church, United Church of Christ, etc.) and private companies (Buttes Gas & Oil, Coca-Cola Italy, Abbott Laboratories, 3M Switzerland, etc.).

Today, this Wednesday April 15, 2009, on the day of the XXXth Anniversary of 1979 Earthquake, Montenegro and the USA celebrated the historical friendship between their people through a series of commemorative events in Bar and Budva, attended by T.Exc. the U.S. Ambassador in Podgorica, Mr. Roderick W. Moore, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, Mr. Milan Roćen, the Minister for Economic Development, Mr. Branimir Gvozdenović, the Minister of Interior, Mr. Jusuf Kalamperović, and numerous local municipality officials.

In Bar, Ambassador Moore, Minister Gvozdenović, Interior Minister Kalamperović and the city’s Mayor, Mr. Žarko Pavićević (DPS), visited the Agricultural High School, started to be built in June 1980 and completed in April 1981 through funds (70%) from the U.S. Government. During a formal ceremony, they rededicated a plaque noting U.S. assistance for the construction of the school. The 4,100m² building was officially inaugurated in April 1981 by former American Ambassador to Yugoslavia, H.E. Mr. David Anderson [2], with the Mayor of the time, Mr. Blažo Orlandić, also present at today’s ceremony.
In parallel was organised at Hotel “Princess”, a roundtable on “Suffering and destructions of 1979 Earthquake - Thirty years of country’s reconstruction”.
Near Bar, in Sutomoru, the U.S. Government equally invested 75% of total funding for the construction of a medical dispensary, opened in 1981 by Ambassador Eagleburger.

During the ceremony in Budva, Ambassador Moore together with Foreign Minister Roćen and the city’s Mayor, Mr. Rajko Kuljača (DPS), visited the Health Centre and the Business Centre — two buildings financed by U.S. funds and inaugurated in 1981 by Ambassador Eagleburger, where they unveiled plaques noting U.S. assistance in building the Centres. The Business Centre notably hosts the municipality offices, as well as the police, the communal police and Budva’s fire station.
In his address, Minister Roćen after warmly thanking the U.S. Government and the entire American people for their continuous help and indefectible support to the country’s reconstruction, did not forget to express again his deepest compassion to the Italian people, in reference to the devastating earthquake which struck Abruzzo, central Italy, on April 6 last, killing at least 260 people, leaving more than 1,000 wounded and destroying hundreds of buildings.