HAVANA (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 shook jap Cuba Sunday, following weeks of hurricanes and blackouts that left many on the island reeling.
According to a report from the US Geological Survey, the epicenter of the earthquake was situated about 40 kilometers south of Bartolomé Maso, Cuba.
Noises have been heard all through the jap a part of Cuba, together with in bigger cities resembling Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and Cuba. Guantánamo. Local media in Jamaica additionally reported that the island felt the tremors.
There have been no instant reviews of great injury or accidents in Cuba.
Residents of Santiago, Cuba’s second largest metropolis, have been left shaken on Sunday. Yolanda Tabío, 76, mentioned individuals within the metropolis poured into the streets and have been nonetheless sitting nervously in doorways. He mentioned he felt at the least two aftershocks after the earthquake, however that he had not heard from family and friends about injury.
“You needed to see how all the pieces was transferring, the partitions, all the pieces,” he advised the Associated Press.
Others reported listening to screams, including that the earthquake was sturdy and extended. On social media, residents within the small city of Pilon reported minor injury, posting pictures of collapsed roofs and cracks in constructing partitions, common in Cuba the place many buildings are older and in want of repairs.
The earthquake comes throughout one other troublesome interval for Cuba.
On Wednesday, Category 3 hurricane Rafael ripped via western Cuba, with sturdy winds knocking out energy throughout the island, destroying lots of of houses and forcing the evacuation of lots of of hundreds of individuals. Days later, a lot of the island was nonetheless with out electrical energy.
A number of weeks earlier, in October, the island had additionally been hit with a one-two punch. First, it was hit everywhere in the island blackouts that last for daysa product of the island’s power disaster. Shortly afterwards it was hit by a strong hurricane that hit the jap a part of the island and killed at the least six individuals.
The blackouts and broader discontent amongst many struggling to outlive have fueled small protests throughout the island.
