Jamaica grateful after earthquake
Jamaica’s government is grateful that there were no deaths, serious injuries or mass disruptions from Monday’s 5.6 magnitude earthquake that sent the island into a panic and officials are also lauding the national emergency system for being up to the task during the disaster.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the response system worked in the wake of the quake that damaged several state and private buildings, threw supermarket supplies off shelves and sent scores of workers and students out of buildings and into the open to safety.
“Jamaica has a very well-developed response mechanism. You would have seen it in action during COVID, you would have seen it in action earlier within the term when we have been threatened by a hurricane. You can have confidence in tomorrow, in the future that the government is prepared and we are able to respond,” he told reporters at an emergency press conference.
The quake, just before 11 a.m. local time, is believed to have lasted about 30 seconds with its epicenter recorded by the seismic center at the University of The West Indies in the southeastern parish of Portland. Tremors and aftershocks numbering at least 30 were felt in several other parishes including some in the north and west, officials said. Schools, some state and private sector offices were closed for the day but life is slowly returning to normal, a point PM Holness emphasized at his briefing.
“I want the country to come back to work, but, when we come back to work, it is with the knowledge and understanding of what we need to do in order to be prepared. We can’t stop these natural events from happening, but we must be resilient, we must be prepared,” he said. In September, instruments at the seismic center had also recorded a 5.2 quake that did not cause as much panic as Monday’s. ”What we have seen is that the damage that has been assessed is not significant. We have experienced some break in electricity and communication. But the report, so far, is that most have been restored. Our airports are open, and we have not received any reports of death. So, we give God thanks for sparing us the worst. But, nevertheless, we are taking all precautions,” Holness told a rattled nation.
The quake had knocked out power to around 130,000 subscribers in the capital and even as far north and west as St. James, the island’s tourism headquarters. Traffic was snarled for hours in urban districts as people headed home to assess infrastructural damage to their homes.
