On Tuesday afternoon, families of UF students felt the earth shake beneath their feet in Cuba, Miami and the Bahamas following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in the ocean.
The quake, which rumbled between Jamaica, Cuba and the Cayman Islands, was powerful enough for now-canceled tsunami warnings to be issued across the Caribbean and for office buildings to be evacuated as far as Miami, according to BBC News.
Samantha Silverio, a 19-year-old UF political science and international studies sophomore, said she has family members in both Cuba and Miami who felt the earthquake’s effects and took part in the office evacuations.
Silverio said it was especially shocking since no one in her family had experienced an earthquake before and that she is concerned for them as they worry in its aftermath.
Light to moderate shaking and aftershocks are already occurring in the region, according to the United States Geological Survey.
“It’s really hard not being with them,” she said. “If anything were to happen, they would kind of be on their own.”
Nathan Heastie, an 18-year-old UF electrical engineering freshman, grew up and has lived most of his life in the Bahamas. He said his entire family lives there, and that he found out about the quake through them.
Heastie said he is not entirely concerned about another earthquake occurring because they are uncommon in the region, but was surprised by the videos he received from his family of the mild damage caused by the quake.
“It was weird to see massive holes in the roads and cars covered in dirt,” he said. “That kind of thing caught me off guard.”
Sinkholes and damage to streets seemed to be the extent of the disruption in the region, with no major damage or injuries being reported, according to NPR.
The United States Geological Survey said it will continue to monitor the region.
A sinkhole is surrounded by police tape after it appeared when a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and eastern Cuba, at Public Beach on West Bay, Grand Cayman, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. The quake also hit the Cayman Islands, leaving cracked roads and what appeared to be sewage spilling from cracked mains. There were no immediate reports of deaths, injuries or more severe damage. (Taneos Ramsay/Cayman Compass via AP)
