People scatter as strong
earthquake rocks island
By Alita Singh
PHILIPSBURG--A steady rumble that suddenly grew into severe shaking caused people to pour out of buildings such as the Princess Juliana International Airport terminal and onto the streets as a 7.4 magnitude earthquake rocked the island shortly after 3:00pm Thursday.
Confronted by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the region, the residents’ immediate fear was whether a tsunami would result. However, those fears were quickly quieted by reports from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and University of the West Indies Seismic Research Unit that the earthquake had occurred deep under the ocean.
The epicentre of the earthquake, which lasted about three minutes here, was located 14 miles North-Northwest of Le Morne-Rouge, Martinique, at a depth of 88.9 miles. On Martinique, the quake shook buildings for about 10 minutes. It was felt throughout most of the Eastern Caribbean and as far south as Colombia, Guyana and Venezuela.
In Philipsburg and elsewhere on the island, people evacuated homes and other buildings – including banks and stores – mirroring the response of their Eastern Caribbean counterparts.
The Daily Herald correspondents in Anguilla, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Kitts-Nevis all reported no serious damage on their respective islands.
However, reports from Guadeloupe said a three-year-old girl had been crushed by a collapsed wall and had died on her way to hospital. Her seven-year-old sister was in critical condition and there were also reports of numerous injuries and widespread property damage.
The earthquake set off a series of false alarms in California and elsewhere as USGS computers struggled to interpret the data from deep beneath the sea and suggested a series of other earthquakes. A false 6.0 was recorded in California's capital, Sacramento.
No damage was reported in St. Maarten, Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards said in a press statement. He also thanked Curaçao Lt. Governor Lisa Richards-Dindial, who had called to enquire if there was damage and if assistance was needed.
At the airport, passengers who had not yet checked in and workers fled from the shaking and rumbling terminal building, leaving behind those in the departure lounge and travellers clearing Immigration. After the scare, operations returned to normal and no flights were affected.
Hollywood Casino workers reported that the floor of the building had “trembled” as the equipment “shook” for a few seconds.
Several residents’ initial response to the quake was indicative of the effects of the booming construction industry, as the initial thought was that there were too many large trucks or pieces of heavy equipment on the roads at the same time or that road works were being undertaken. As the shaking continued, these sceptics quickly realised that it was indeed a quake.
One Pelican resident said, “I got so upset because I thought they were drilling the road again, because my glass door was rocking. But just then, I realised that all the plants in my house were also shaking.”
In Philipsburg, the panic was intensified by people who emerged from buildings to see more smoke spewing from a fire on the dump that had been burning since last week Thursday.
After the panic subsided, operations around the island returned to normal.
The Fire Department has requested that residents and business owners call 919 to report any damage sustained to their premises due to the quake. This information will be used for inventory purposes.
Little damage was reported regionally. In Martinique, one person had a heart attack and another was injured jumping out of a window. At least five houses collapsed in the quake, the strongest in living memory, and walls cracked in buildings on Martinique and nearby St. Lucia to the South, authorities said.
