Earthquake in Cuba: magnitude 6.8 quake off the east coast

CNN
—

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck off Cuba’s east coast on Sunday, causing property damage in several regions as the island continues to recover from widespread power outages and the impact of two hurricanes in recent weeks.

The earthquake was reported about 39 km (24 miles) south of Bartolomé Masó before noon local time, about an hour after a magnitude 5.9 quake shook the area, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

“There were landslides, damage to homes and power lines,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said, adding that authorities were assessing the situation to begin recovery efforts.

Images from Granma province published by state news agency Cubadebate showed buildings with cracks in the walls and piles of rubble on the ground.

According to Enrique Diego Arango Arias, head of Cuba’s National Seismological Service, the municipality of Pilón suffered “great damage.”

“I can’t answer messages or phone calls. I couldn’t post. “The situation is quite complicated,” he said on Facebook.

Residents in eastern Cuba told Reuters the quake was as strong as anything they had felt before.

“Strong as always. On other occasions we felt the earthquake, but not as strong as now,” said Griselda Fernandez.

The quake was also felt in the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and Guantánamo, where the deadly Hurricane Oscar struck last month.

Another storm, Rafael, struck western Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday, causing the island’s latest major power outage in recent weeks.

According to the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center, Sunday’s earthquake did not pose a significant tsunami threat, but it warned that “there is a very low probability of tsunami waves along coasts closest to the epicenter.”

The quake was apparently not felt in the capital, Havana, but the shockwaves reached South Florida, with footage on social media showing swaying ceiling lights of a tower in Miami.