After a hurricane and a long power outage, the earth trembles in Cuba. A powerful earthquake, followed by a strong aftershock, shook the southeast of the island on Sunday, but local authorities said there were no immediate casualties and no tsunami alert.
The second tremor, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, occurred about an hour after a first earthquake of 5.9 magnitude, according to the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS).
The epicenter of the second earthquake was located at a depth of 23.5 km, about 40 km from the coast of Bartolomé Maso, in the province of Granma (southeast). The epicenter of the first tremor was located 14.2 km under the ocean, about 35 km from the coast of Bartolomé Maso, and about 175 km from Santiago de Cuba, the country's second city. In both cases, no tsunami warning was recorded.
“Cracked” walls, “collapsed” roofs
The tremors were felt in all the eastern provinces of the country and in some in the center, without causing any deaths according to initial information, reported the official Cuban newspaper Granma.
“We felt it very strongly here. After about half an hour of the first shock, we were on our way home when a second one occurred, and it was even stronger,” testified Karen Rodriguez, in Caney de las Mercedes, a small village in the municipality of Bartolomé Maso. In the village, “there are houses with cracked walls, others with walls that have collapsed and others with collapsed roofs,” this 28-year-old hairdresser described by telephone.
In Bayamo, a town of 140,000 inhabitants located 50 km from Bartolomé Maso, residents also felt the strong aftershock. “The (electric) poles were moving, the street, everything lasted about 20 seconds, the first (shake). Because then there was another one, which was also very strong. People were scared, everyone was running, leaving their homes, they were very scared,” said Livan Chavez, a 24-year-old welder. Dalia Rodriguez, a housewife, said a wall in her house was damaged. “That’s all we needed!” “, she exclaimed.
A hurricane a few days ago
Cuba is barely recovering from Category 3 Hurricane Rafael, which struck the west of the island and caused a widespread power outage that lasted nearly two days.
In the center of Santiago de Cuba, which has 500,000 inhabitants, “people quickly took to the streets because the ground moved very hard,” said Andres Perez, a 65-year-old retiree. “We really felt it very strongly, my wife is completely on edge,” he added.
Last month, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake was recorded in Santiago de Cuba without causing damage. At the end of January 2020, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook the Caribbean between Cuba and Jamaica, felt in several provinces of Cuba, but without causing damage despite evacuations in Havana.
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