Jamaica skilled some 70 aftershocks on Monday following the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the island at round 10:57 AM that very same day.
That is in accordance with Minister of Native Authorities and Neighborhood Growth, Desmond McKenzie, who obtained the knowledge from the Earthquake Unit on the College of the West Indies, Mona campus.
In his handle throughout Parliament on Tuesday, McKenzie mentioned the tremor was “the biggest earthquake the nation would have skilled in over 50 years.”
He famous that whereas the studying was 5.6 on the Richter scale, the tremor had a most depth of seven.
The minister mentioned that the injury throughout all affected parishes was minimal and there was no reported lack of life.
“I used to be glad to report, primarily based on data from each private and non-private sector companions, that a lot of the injury to buildings and different infrastructure was largely superficial fairly than structural,” he mentioned.
The epicenter of the quake was 4 kilometers from Hope Bay in Portland, Jamaica, with a depth of 10 km. In line with USGS, different affected international locations included Haiti, the USA Minor Outlying Islands, and Cuba.
Criticism of ODPEM’s response
As minister additionally accountable for catastrophe administration, McKenzie additionally addressed criticism that the island’s Workplace of Catastrophe Preparedness and Emergency Administration (ODPEM) was gradual to reply following the quake.
Many residents had identified on social media that a few of ODPEM’s social media pages had been inactive and no advisories have been put out within the hours following the earthquake.
However McKenzie mentioned that Jamaica’s fast response mechanism, which was developed to take care of disasters, was in operation inside half-hour of the incident.
“This rivals one of the best worldwide follow for rapid catastrophe evaluation and emergency response. This occasion has served as an necessary check of our response capabilities and it was confirmed, Mr. Speaker, that the system works and that the ODPEM is on prime of its recreation,” he mentioned.
He additionally identified that the Chairman of the Nationwide Catastrophe Threat Administration Committee, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, had addressed the state of affairs in a video message shortly after the earthquake occurred.
