I was watching a collection of photos taken last week.
I was amazed by how quickly the buildings have deteriorated-why are most of the windows broken?
Did the people smash them when they pulled out?
Granted, Soviet-era buildings were often shoddily constructed-but these buildings look like they are ready to collapse.
Any idea when Chernobyl will be completely unrecognizable? The trees are growing everywhere.
Windows break usually due to vandalism. They can also get moved around by the window frame as they expand and contract in the seasons, which pops the glass and it breaks.
I would so love to explore Pripyat. Urban exploration has been something I’d like to do more of.
I’ve read that they broke the windows so that radioactive material would not be trapped in the buildings. Too lazy to go find a cite, though.
Once the elements get inside a building, deterioration really speeds up. So if those windows were broken early on, it’s no surprise that the buildings really look like crap.
The mushrooms broke them
Vice Magazine did an episode of the Guide to Travel in Chernobyl. They were able to go inside buildings and the like, but couldn’t go into the forest, which apparently is teeming with deadly radiation.
Watch it here: VICE - VICE is the definitive guide to enlightening information.
Bill Kurtis did a Frontline episode 10+ years ago about returning to Chernobyl. A very informative show about the post disaster measures and their effects. It was interesting to watch Bill get nervous every time he was outside talking to the British nuclear scientist and the Geiger Counter was pinging away.
Pripyat was heavily looted, in spite of the danger and in spite of the exclusion zone. It was a well-to-do city by Soviet standards, built for fairly privileged workers. The schools were well-equipped, the stores had decent stock, and people had furniture and refrigerators and televisions. Look at any recent photos you find on the Internet: all of that is gone. Anything of value was taken in the economic chaos after the collapse of the Soviet Union, if not before.
The damage to the city is a combination of the effects of nature and the acts of the looters. Once windows start breaking - whether because of looters or because the glass shifts in the frame is not important - and moisture enters the building, then damp, molds, and the freeze-thaw cycle will start breaking the building down. Plants growing too close to the foundations or even inside will only make things worse, as their roots slowly break apart even reinforced concrete.