Port Of Spain – St Lucia and Dominica experienced two earthquakes within a 72-hour period, however, there were no reports of injuries or damages.
The Trinidad-based Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of the University of the West Indies (UWI), said that the latest quake occurred on Wednesday afternoon with a magnitude of 3.9.
It said that quake, which had a depth of 160 kilometres (km), was felt 49 km south east of the Dominican capital of Roseau and 102 km north of Castries, the capital of St Lucia. It was also felt 38 km north of Fort-de-France on the French island of Martinique.
SRC said that Wednesday’s quake followed the 4.5 magnitude tremor that was felt on Monday afternoon.
It said that the Monday quake, which was at a depth of 26 km, was felt 81 km east, south east of Roseau, 130 km north, north east of Castries and 77 km north east of Fort-de-France.
Meanwhile, the outgoing director of the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) in Antigua and Barbuda, Philmore Mullin, told citizens there to take recent earthquakes seriously.
He told the Antigua Observer newspaper that complacency kills, and residents should not take earthquakes for granted, as they are often followed by tsunamis.
“The information is in the public domain and you are going to have people who take it seriously and those who don’t. Unfortunately, those who don’t are likely to become victims,” he said.
Mullin said he is leaving the disaster management office after what he said are some major achievements.
“When I joined this office, disaster management certainly wasn’t what it was years ago. We have gone through several plans; we have developed a sound community disaster management programme. We can be proud of such a system.’
“We still have work to do with various ministries and departments and I would like to see a little more ownership. The various ministries need to take more responsibility and ownership of disaster management,” he said. (CMC)
