Powerful 7.1 Earthquake shakes southern Belize
Pastor Dale Morgan
Powerful 7.1 Earthquake shakes southern Belize *
A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook Belize on Thursday morning .
The damage was concentrated in the south where the quake damaged and
sunk homes in Monkey River Village, cracked streets and toppled piers in
Placencia, and it cut off Independence Village's water and power supply
after the tremors forced the collapse of the village's water reservoir
and shut down its electrical substation.
The quake hit at 2:24 a.m. on Thursday off the coast of Belize and
Honduras, with its epicenter located 140 miles from the coast of Belize
City and in the heart of Monkey River Village where its 200 residents
were startled out of their sleep.
Malvi Garbutt awoke to hear dogs barking and what she calls, "a
rolling". Garbutt peeped outside and thought rain was coming. Instead
she saw stars in the sky, and moments later she says, "the house start
to shake up, it was cracking and making a lot of noise." Garbutt and her
three young children ran for cover under the table as she, "felt the
house start to shake up…and felt when it sink and water start to gush
out from around the posts." Gatbutt's wooden home remains standing, but
it is now crooked. She says her house is "high and low, it feels bad. It
feels like you are going up a hill and down a hill… but I am still
alive, I have my life."
Clive Garbutt, another Monkey River resident, lost part of his hotel to
the sudden gush of water. He was asleep and awoke to find "everything
just shaking and then right then it took me a few seconds to realize
that it was an earthquake." He says, "When I got outside, most of this
property was under water and water was just spouting out of the ground."
Some residents report seeing the water spouts as high as 20 feet in the
air. Geologist Andre Cho says the water spouts are known as liquefaction
and are as a result of seismic waves passing through loose sediments, a
common occurrence in earthquakes.
According to Monkey River Village Chairman Mario Muschamp, twenty homes
were damaged and eight of those were extensively damaged. Working
closely with Toledo East Area Representative and Minister of Human
Development Hon. Peter Eden Martinez, one thousand gallons of water was
delivered to the villagers by midday on Thursday.
In the village of Placencia there were no classes at the St. John's
Anglican Memorial School on Thursday because there was no potable water.
The quake cracked the village's water tower and so the Village Council
emptied the reservoir to relieve the pressure, leaving water only at the
bottom. This was done pending an assessment from an engineer.
The tremor in Placencia also left six to eight inch cracks on the main
street in Placencia in the area in front of the Belize Bank. It also
topped the Sea Horse Dive Shop pier. Owner Brian Young says, "I think we
dropped about four feet and all the posts just went right down like some
other building on the mainland. It just went right down." The quake is
also being blamed for extensive damage to the Placencia Producers
Fishermen Cooperative's building, part of which, had sunk. A pier on
which there is a fueling station was also reportedly damaged in Placencia.
A short boat ride from Placencia is the village of Independence; the
quake brought the village's 18,000 gallon water reservoir that was built
on a 30 foot concrete tower crumbling down. Village Chairman George
Murray who lives across the street from the reservoir says, "I heard
when something dropped and immediately I told my wife that is the tank
and I came out with a flashlight...and came and saw the tank on the
ground."
The shake of the 7.1 magnitude quake damaged BEL's Independence Village
Substation which plunged the village into darkness for 90 minutes and
sent ripples of panic into the homes of most of the village's five
thousand residents. Dale Antonio says his bed, "started to dance punta."
He at first thought that his daughter was jumping around but later, "the
bed started to rock even more…the house to me felt like it was rooting
out of the ground. It was frightening because it was a cement foundation
and it feel like it was rising." He says "I told my family to get
underneath the doorway to make sure they are safe."
Water supply was restored to Independence Village by two on Thursday
afternoon. There were no reports of other significant damage to other
public infrastructure or homes in the village. Assorted damages were
also reported along Belize's southern coastline in villages including
Seine Bight and Sittee River. In Belize City, a few house shook but none
actually fell.
The Belize District Emergency Team was, however, on alert and blared
sirens early on Thursday morning informing residents about a tsunami
warning that had been issued for the coast of Belize. Tsunamis normally
follow earthquakes and are as a result of shifts in the ocean floor. It
is a large body of water travelling at high speed towards the coast.
Geologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources Andre Cho says while
Thursday's powerful earthquake may have been shocking, it shouldn't be
surprising because Belize is in an earthquake prone zone. Cho adds that
we are, "near to the transplant plate boundary between the North
American and Caribbean plate." An earthquake is caused by a movement in
those plates. Cho warns, "An earthquake is a real hazard that we live
with and we need to be prepared for." Most Belizeans though were caught
off guard at 2:24 on Thursday morning May 28. There were no fatalities
in Belize, but six were reported in Honduras.