Strong quake jolts Honduras, stirs panic
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 29, 2009 00:00
TEGUCIGALPA - A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Honduras yesterday, killing at least one person whose home collapsed, and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets, officials said. Marco Burgos, chief of the permanent emergency commission, warned it was "very premature to evaluate damages because this was a very major event."
The main tremor deep below the Caribbean coast shook the country for more than 30 seconds in the middle of the night, leading to a 90-minute tsunami alert for Honduras and neighboring Guatemala and Belize.
A 15-year-old boy was killed and another injured when their home collapsed in La Lima, some 230 kilometers north of the capital, authorities said. And there were seven people being treated for broken bones in the Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city, officials said. Red Cross representative Jesse Salazar said there had been power outages and that communications were cut to the island of Roatan, the inhabited area nearest the quake. Salazar said more damage was likely from the quake, particularly on Roatan, but that officials were still awaiting reports from the island.
Kenton Pinet, a reception worker at Infinity Bay resort on Roatan, told AFPby phone that "we did have a strong one ... but I haven't seen injuries."
A 15-year-old boy was killed and another injured when their home collapsed in La Lima, some 230 kilometers north of the capital, authorities said. And there were seven people being treated for broken bones in the Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city, officials said. Red Cross representative Jesse Salazar said there had been power outages and that communications were cut to the island of Roatan, the inhabited area nearest the quake. Salazar said more damage was likely from the quake, particularly on Roatan, but that officials were still awaiting reports from the island.
Kenton Pinet, a reception worker at Infinity Bay resort on Roatan, told AFPby phone that "we did have a strong one ... but I haven't seen injuries."