On a regular Monday, a powerful seismic event disrupted daily life across western Cuba, hitting offshore of the island nation’s western coastline. The sudden tremor, measured at a magnitude of 6.1 by the United States Geological Survey, originated roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Cuba’s westernmost point, sending shockwaves that rippled across the region and even into neighboring parts of the United States.
Reporters from Agence France-Presse based in Havana, Cuba’s capital, confirmed the shaking persisted for approximately 20 seconds. The prolonged movement of buildings prompted widespread evacuations, as residents and workers streamed out of structures to gather on open city streets. Cuban national authorities confirmed the tremor was detectable across the entire western half of the country, leaving many first-time quake observers startled by the experience.
For 47-year-old Havana economist Carmel Delgado, the initial sensation was disorienting rather than immediately recognizable. “At first I just felt dizzy — it didn’t occur to me it was an earthquake, I’d never experienced that before,” Delgado shared in an interview with AFP. “But once we realized what it could be, we got out quickly.”
In Havana’s historic central district, 41-year-old actor Francis Ruiz was mid-recording for a radio drama on the fifth floor of a studio building when the quake hit. “We were recording in an office and all of a sudden the table moved and we all looked at each other,” Ruiz recalled. “The building shook, and right then chaos broke out, everyone running down the stairs.”
In the hours after the tremor, crowds of residents lingered in central Havana, gathering in small groups and checking their mobile devices for updates on the event. Even hundreds of kilometers away in southern Florida, AFP correspondents also reported feeling faint shaking from the quake.
In the wake of the seismic event, the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center quickly assessed potential hazards. Officials ruled out any risk of a large destructive tsunami, but noted there remained a “very small possibility” of minor, localized sea level changes along coastlines closest to the quake’s epicenter. As of Tuesday morning, Cuban emergency management officials have not received any reports of casualties or major structural damage from the tremor.