Caribbean Dodges Dangerous Quake, but Puerto Rico Still Suffering with 240K Students Out of School
People in the Caribbean are breathing a sigh of relief after a large earthquake shook the region Tuesday afternoon but did little damage.
The 7.7 magnitude quake hit at shallow depth in the waters between Cuba and Jamaica.
The shaking was felt 400 miles away, all the way up to Miami, where people fled their buildings and into the streets.
"The alarm started sounding and they just told us, go downstairs through the stairs," one resident said.
"We thought it was a bombing, we thought it was a shooting, we didn't know what it was."
Well, that would be scary to have next to your house during an earthquake #jamaicaearthquake https://t.co/bA9aBaTaSY
— Sean Dustman (@dustmans) January 28, 2020
In Jamaica, children were forced to evacuate their schools while water burst out of containment systems and rocked in the pools and resorts of Grand Cayman.
Thankfully, there were no injuries and no tsunami.
Tuesday's event follows a series of quakes that hit Puerto Rico last month, which sits along the same set of tectonic plates.
Nearly three weeks after a 6.4 quake shook that territory, about 80 percent of schools are still closed in Puerto Rico leaving 240,000 schoolchildren unable to attend classes.
