UPDATE: TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — One of the strongest earthquakes to hit the Caribbean in modern times struck off the coast of Honduras on Tuesday night, shaking the mainland and setting off tsunami warnings that were canceled about an hour later.
There were no early reports of serious damage or casualties on land after the quake struck shortly before 10 p.m. EST. Officials in Honduras said shaking was registered across much of the nation and there were some reports of cracks in homes in Colon and Atlantida provinces along the northern coast and Olancho in eastern Honduras.
Tsunami centers issued advisories and warnings for Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Jamaica and other Caribbean islands as well as on the coasts of Mexico and Central America, cautioning that sea levels could rise from a foot to 3 feet (0.3 to 1 meter) above normal, but no tsunami materialized
Tuesday night’s story:
Tsunami advisories have been issued for some Caribbean nations, but not the Bahamas, after an earthquake in the region on Tuesday night.
The magnitude 7.6 quake occurred west of Jamaica.
The US Tsunami Warning Center says hazardous tsunami waves are possible 621 miles from the epicentre - Jamaica, Mexico, Cuba, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Cayman Islands, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands could be affected. People near the coast of those nations should seek higher ground immediately.
Comments
John 6 years, 4 months ago
If there was a threat of a tsunami in the Bahamas only a very small percentage of the population would have heard the warnings within the time the earthquake struck and the time the tsunami would have hit the Bahamas. Especially given the time of night it happened. And of those who heard about it, very few took seriously the possibility of a tsunami hitting the Bahamas or the Caribbean for that matter. However we must realize we live in strange times with changing weather patterns and other unusual events. Several years ago CNN broadcasts for several hours that a tsunami was headed this was after an earthquake somewhere on the other side of the world. The few people contacted said something like ‘yea ok’ and went back to sleep after being rudely awakened. Then around 6 am CNN announces that it was a test of the emergency broadcast system and even though there had been an earthquake there was no threat of a tsunami in this part of the world. The only threat was to Hawaii and since they gots threats all the time they were prepared for it.
DDK 6 years, 4 months ago
Yet another benefit of oil exploration and syphoning!
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