Officials said efforts were underway to assess the damage after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck eastern Cuba.
A powerful earthquake has struck eastern Cuba, adding further trouble to a country still reeling from a series of recent storms and power outages.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported Sunday that a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the town of Bartolomé Masso. No deaths or injuries have been reported so far.
“There were landslides, damage to houses and power lines,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a social media post, adding that the areas of Santiago de Cuba and Granma were affected.
“We have begun assessing the damage for recovery. The first and most important thing is to save lives,” he said.
People in the affected states said the quake was one of the most powerful they’ve ever felt in their lives, and the USGS says it has experienced 23 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater in the past 50 years. That’s no small feat in a region where it’s located.
“I’ve felt earthquakes in the past, but nothing like this,” Griselda Fernandez, a Santiago resident, told Reuters.
Other residents of Santiago, Cuba’s second-largest city, reported buildings shaking in the quake and many people still standing nervously in their doorways.
“I had to see how the walls and everything was moving,” Yolanda Tabio, 76, who lives in the city, told The Associated Press.
Many of the homes and buildings in this area are old and susceptible to earthquake damage.
State media published images of the terracotta roofs and facades of concrete block houses that collapsed in the shaking. Many images showed structural damage to ceilings, walls, window pillars, and public infrastructure.
The USGS said neighboring countries such as Jamaica are also feeling some impact.
The tremors are the latest in a series of natural disasters that are exacerbating Cuba’s existing infrastructure problems, where large swaths of the population also face economic instability.
In October, Hurricane Oscar made landfall in eastern Cuba, bringing heavy rain and widespread power outages to the island, killing at least six people.
Last week, another storm, Hurricane Rafael, hit the eastern part of the island, leaving at least 10 million people without power.
The storm uprooted trees and knocked down utility poles. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated.
