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No reports of damage but widespread panic after earthquake

There have been no major reports of damage so far but tremors have affected virtually all of the Caribbean islands...from Puerto Rico to Antigua....Dominica...st.lucia and even as far as Guyana....Trinidad and Tobago.....Barbados

This is one of the largest events that have occurred in the Caribbean in recent years.

I did feel the tremor which occurred for about twenty seconds here in Barbados.Having never experienced such an event my initial reaction was that maybe I was feeling unwell(dizzy)......Traffic in Bridgetown is at a standstill as well as the highways.....with the panic that we experienced in Barbados it is a very good thing it wasn't longer...it has been reported that the last time Barbados experienced a tremor was in 1947

For more information please go to uwiseismic.com

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - A powerful but deep earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 sent workers scrambling in panic into Caribbean streets on Thursday after it struck near the island of Martinique and sent tremors through the region.
The quake was "the strongest this century" but there were no initial reports of serious damage or injury, said Julian Dubois, deputy director of the St. Lucia Civil Defence.
"There have been no reports of significant damage apart from to water lines and water tanks," Dubois said by telephone.
He added the strength and duration of the quake would undoubtedly have caused cracks in buildings.
Dominique Boucle at the Civil Defence unit in Martinique, a French territory in the eastern Caribbean, said he had no details but there was "very little damage."

ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) — A powerful earthquake rocked the eastern Caribbean on Thursday, sending office workers and shoppers on several islands fleeing into the streets. Minor injuries were reported on the island of Martinique.
The earthquake which struck at 2 p.m. EST, with a magnitude of 7.4, was centered 26 miles southeast of Roseau, the capital of Dominica, where the shaking lasted for about 20 seconds.
The quake was felt hundreds of miles away in Puerto Rico to the west, and Venezuela and Suriname to the south.
In the neighboring island of Martinique, a government official said police and firefighters were responding to hundreds of calls for help. He said some people sustained minor injuries, but no major casualties have been reported.
The official declined to give his name in accordance with government policy.
The earthquake collapsed the roofs of a bank and a store in the capital of Martinique, Fort-de-France. Ambulances were called in.
"My house shook so hard I thought it was going to fall," said a caller to Radio Martinique who identified herself only as Fannie. "The door, the windows, everything shook."
The quake struck at a depth of 90 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Web site.
"I wouldn't expect major damage because the quake has some depth," said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the quake was too deep to generate a destructive tsunami.

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