6.8 magnitude earthquake shakes Cuba after hurricane and blackouts. Some damage reported

HAVANA – A strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook eastern Cuba on Sunday, after weeks of hurricanes and blackouts that have left many on the island shocked. No casualties were reported, but some damage was reported.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Bartolomé Masó, Cuba, according to a report from the United States Geological Survey. It recorded a depth of 23.5 kms (15 miles).

The tremor was felt throughout the eastern part of the island, even in larger cities such as Santiago de Cuba.

“People came out into the street, they are still sitting at the door, very nervous,” Yolanda Tabío, a 76-year-old housewife who lives in the Sueños neighborhood of the city of Santiago de Cuba, told The Associated Press by telephone. . “You had to see how everything moved, the walls, everything.”

Tabío indicated that he had perceived at least two aftershocks but among his friends and family there were no reports of damage to buildings in Santiago, Cuba’s second largest city.

“There was a lot of screaming. It was strong and widespread,” Catholic nun Enma Castillo of the Archbishopric of Santiago told the AP. The small town of El Cobre where the Sanctuary of the Virgin of the same name, patron saint of Cuba, is located, did not suffer either. affects.

Photos were published on the Feacebook social network pages of provincial media outlets showing some minor damage in the town of Pilón, in the province of Granma, such as fallen slabs from roofs, cracks in old buildings, broken flower pots and debris from front roofs. .

The official Granma newspaper, which cited the secretary of the Communist Party in the province of Granma, indicated that there were “partial collapses in homes and state centers, as well as cracking of walls, falls of electrical poles and damage to stairs.”

The official also said that there were no victims to regret, while they began to tour the mountainous areas – it is a largely rural area – to determine possible landslides.

Users indicated that earth movements were also perceived in Holguín, Las Tunas and Guantánamo.

Eastern Cuba usually suffers from recurring earthquakes. The movement was not perceptible in Havana, located at the other end of the country, the western one.

Cuba went through two cyclones in less than a month: the first, Oscar, was particularly destructive precisely in the east of the island, leaving eight dead in Guantánamo; The second, Rafael, hit the western area last week. There were also collapses in the national energy system that left prolonged blackouts.