…citizens express fear,no major damage reported

AN earth tremor which resulted from a 7.3 magnitude earthquake which rocked the northern coast of Venezuela on Tuesday afternoon created a buzz around Guyana, even as Acting Director General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) Kester Craig cautioned that the body had not received any tsunami warning.

The United States Geological Survey reported that the quake occurred at 5:31 PM (Guyana Time) off the north-west of Yaguaraparo, Venezuela, to a depth of 123.2 kilometres.
The CDC head told the Guyana Chronicle that the Hydrometeorological Service is closely monitoring the situation. In the event of an earthquake, Craig issued a few precautions.  “For earthquakes, there is a whole list of precautions that you can take, but if you are indoors, you need to drop down to the ground take cover and get under a sturdy table or piece of furniture and hold on until the shaking stops. Stay away from glass windows, do not use the doorways. So I have a whole list of precautions on my facebook page,” he said.
“Currently, we are monitoring to see if there are any tsunami warnings that will be set for Guyana. I spoke with Hydromet Services, which has responsibility to give warnings for tsunami.  And they have indicated so far that from the specific warning centre, that there is no tsunami warning for Guyana. They will continue to monitor it and soon will issue a statement with regard to tsunami warnings for the country, but at the moment the tide is low, so if there is any tsunami, it’s not likely to be any high surge,” Craig said.

Tremor rocks Guyana
Many persons ran out of buildings and some took to social media platforms, including Facebook, to share their views. Guyanese say the magnitude of the tremor was beyond what they had experienced in the past. Guyana had last experienced a major tremor in 2015, when a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Barbados. The tremor on Tuesday was felt as far as Linden and East Berbice. There were no reports of any damage or injuries in Guyana. The Guyana Chronicle has also confirmed earlier reports of a house toppling in the Mabaruma sub-region. Residents at the village of Koberimo Hill told the Guyana Chronicle that the report was merely a rumour.

Elsewhere, persons reported that the tremor was a first-time experience. “Them thing start shake bad bad. All me divider them and wardrobe and kitchen cupboard start shake, I didn’t know what to do. I keep thinking oh God nah let the divider fall down with the TV and them thing,” said one resident who experienced the tremor on the West Bank of Demerara

“I was in bed, I thought it was an excavator passing in front my house, but is when my neighbours started hollering made I recognise it was something more,” said a resident in Agricola.

In Region Two and on the Islands of Wakenaam and Leguan, many persons were seen running outside their homes for safety. Children from various communities were terrified during the entire ordeal. Ten-year-old Reya Persaud noted how she rushed to her mother for comfort when she felt her home shaking suddenly. She and her mother decided to pray. Other children in the Golden Fleece area on the Essequibo Coast were also terrified and loud screams were heard. A housewife who was doing her laundry said that she immediately ran to a corner of her home where she believed was safe.

Wakenaam resident Sheik Ahmad said that the tremor lasted for five minutes on the island and according to him, persons took necessary precautionary measures. The tremor also caught many Lindeners by surprise.

Jonelle Wiggins of Amelia’s Ward said she was standing on her patio when she felt the foundation shaking. She said she paid no attention to the situation until she saw her neighbour’s glass door shaking. “I saw Ms White glass door shaking and I said this serious, then I came outside and saw everybody on the road,” the woman said.
Vanessa Moore, also of Amelia’s Ward, was sitting on her bed when it started to shake and after realising it intensified, she collected her two small children and headed outside where she thought it was safer. She later learnt from her mom that it was better to stay indoors and take cover under a table. According to scientific literature, at the location of the earthquake, the South America plate moves westward with respect to the Caribbean plate at a rate of approximately 20 millimetres per year.

Berbice hit by tremor
In Berbice, many villages in the East Berbice-Corentyne area reported experiencing the tremor. In Rose Hall Town, where the tremor was felt around 17:25hrs, some people initially thought it was heavy-duty equipment working on a street that was causing the earth to tremble. However, after noticing buildings and lamp poles shaking, they soon realised it was much more than that. “I feel the ground vibrating and I thought was them man who mekking the street roller causing the place fuh shake, so I say wah duh is a big roller; but then me see the water in the barrel start shaking up and I hear me neighbour start holler, so I run out and then see more people start come out in the backstreet,” Desmond Williams related.

Another person identified as Vishal Singh, a hire car driver, said he was in his car waiting for a passenger to enter when he felt the car started to shake. “I see the vehicle start shake, so I turn around and look fuh see who shaking up the vehicle; then I see them wires and lantern post shaking too so I seh is earthquake; but before I can say anything else everybody jump out the car. Me ain’t even know where them people gone up until now them ain’t pay me nothing.”

On the public road, a doctor stopped his car and was seen urging people to get out of shops and from under power lines and lamp poles into the middle of the roadway. The tremor lasted for approximately one minute,stopped for a few seconds, before a second was felt that lasted for about 30 seconds.

In Orealla, residents reported that the tremor was felt very strongly and it lasted for about two minutes, but thankfully there were no injuries or damage reported. Laurence Vanderburg, a school teacher, said the tremor made him dizzy and he had to run outside to safety.

Inland areas such as Black Bush Polder also felt the tremor, but it was not as strong and was for less than a minute. Most persons said they were unaware until they saw other people posting on social media that they realised what had happened.

University of Guyana Lecturer Evan Persaud noted that the South America plate begins its subduction beneath the Caribbean plate about 550 km to the east of Tuesday’s earthquake and reaches depths close to 150 km in the vicinity of this event. The earthquake occurred near the southern end of the Caribbean subduction zone. Persaud, who is a geologist, noted too that large earthquakes are rare in the area and it was noted that the quake felt on Tuesday was the largest historic event within 250 km of this location in the 20th and 21st centuries. (Additional reporting by Vanessa Braithwaite, Indrawattie Natram, Tamica Garnett and Nafeeza Yahya)