The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

TREMORS from a powerful regional earthquake disrupted a Cabinet meeting and forced dozens along New Providence’s northern coast to evacuate their multi-storey office buildings and seek safety on ground level yesterday.

Cabinet Office ordered government offices closed as a precautionary measure.

Some people felt their building shake and watched as items swayed but the vibrations were never violent and there were no reports of injuries or damaged structures.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) said a 7.7 magnitude earthquake occurred 83 miles northwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica at about 2.10pm at the depth of six miles and was felt in New Providence around 2.15pm. According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), there were no reports of impact to the southern islands.

Unlike Belize, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, the Cay Islands and Jamaica, the Bahamas never faced tsunami threats.

Some workers at Colina Insurance on East Bay Street felt the vibrations.

An hour after their building was evacuated most had returned to their stations but about a dozen people continued to congregate outside, afraid to re-enter the building.

“I just felt it shake,” said a woman who declined to give her name. “On my third floor it was shaking slightly. I grabbed my bag and ran to the stairwell. I didn’t believe it at first until my coworkers said ‘y’all felt that?’ By the time we reached the stairwell the fourth floor people were already down in front of us.”

Another woman said: “For me I was unsure what was going on. I saw the water in my cup swaying and when I saw that then I realised that the building was shaking. I alerted everybody. We picked up and left.”

The tremors lasted a few minutes, the women said. They were concerned about the safety of the building and decided to remain outside. “I feel like someone need to check the building and they should at least wait an hour or two to say for sure that the building is safe,” one said.

The Tribune encountered Cabinet ministers and government workers leaving the Churchill Building downtown when it arrived shortly after 3pm. Some of them said they felt tremors, others did not.

Education Minister Jeff Lloyd said ministers had just started their afternoon Cabinet meeting when they felt the building shake.

“The prime minister ordered an immediate evacuation and the Secretary to Cabinet and other leaders ordered an immediate evacuation of all staff and that’s why for about 45 minutes we stood outside just to see what else is going on. Everybody then left,” he said.

“It felt scary. It was just a noticeable tremor and then immediately word came to us that Jamaica had suffered a (7.7) magnitude or so earthquake and countries in this region were affected.”

Elsewhere downtown business continued as usual, with many saying they felt nothing.

“Structural engineers will come and see if there has been any impact on the integrity of the (Churchill) building,” Mr Lloyd opined. “We would need that definite reassurance.”

Meanwhile, the United States Geological Survey reported that a 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit off the Cayman Islands about two hours after the first earthquake and there were several smaller quakes reported in and near Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. 

There were no reports of injuries or major damage throughout the region but social media was flooded with posts of photos and videos from people documenting the event. Some clips from the Cayman Islands and Jamaica captured damage to vehicles and gaping holes in the earth. In South Florida, multiple buildings were evacuated in Miami after people felt buildings shaking. The Associated Press reported that the quake was felt strongly in the Cuban city of Santiago.

“We were all sitting and we felt the chairs move,” Belkis Guerrero, who works in a Catholic cultural center in the center of Santiago, told the AP. “We heard the noise of everything moving around.”

She said there was no apparent damage in the city. “It felt very strong but it doesn’t look like anything happened,’’ she told the news agency.

The Washington Post reported that the quake was among the strongest on record in the Caribbean.