Magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Venezuela near Caracas
That’s big, and it is feared that the damage and loss of life is great. What’s even worse is that it wasn’t just one earthquake; it was two about a minute apart, the first at 7.1 and the second at 7.5. The only good thing about it was that people had a little bit of time to evacuate:
The earthquakes struck shortly after 6 p.m. local time. People evacuated swaying buildings in Caracas and remained outside, many visibly shocked as they saw entire walls that had collapsed, making furniture visible from the street. Dust columns could also be seen in two neighborhoods of the capital, where restaurants and other businesses are typically busy. People remained on the streets after sunset. Some sat on the ground hugging their pets as dust gathered around them.
“It started off gently and then gradually grew, and in the end, we all had to leave our houses, go outside and gather together,” Caracas resident Hector Ricci said.
I wonder how many of the buildings in Caracas are designed to withstand quakes. This was apparently the biggest one there in about a century. My guess is that the buildings aren’t designed for a big one, and this is why:
Strong earthquakes are unusual in Venezuela.
While the country sits near multiple fault lines, its position straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.
It was felt in Colombia and parts of the Caribbean. I very much hope the death toll isn’t high, but I fear it is.
[NOTE: I wasn’t at my computer or on my phone when the first news came, so I just heard about it close to 9:30 PM. But earlier today I had heard the news of a thankfully-much-smaller earthquake near the Fort Bragg area of California: a magnitude 5.6, which was the biggest in that area of California in the last forty years. It’s a beautiful place I know well, and I have relatives and friends all over the state.
I’ve been to California at least 75 times in the last 50 years, and have probably been in five or six earthquakes there myself. However, mercifully, I’ve never been in a very serious one – although a person doesn’t know that at the time until it’s over. I’ve been in ones that are gentle and ones that begin with a harsh jolt, ones that seem to be over quickly and ones that seem to go on for quite some time. They are always frightening, every single one of them.
Northern California and Caracas are very far from each other and on different tectonic plates, and so these earthquakes on the same day were almost certainly coincidental. But if it’s a coincidence, it’s certainly an eerie one.]
There will be people demanding that we send money to Caracas. I can’t help but think sending SeaBees would probably be a better idea.
And there was a big one in Japan as well. Makes you wonder.
SCOTTtheBADGER
There will be people demanding that we send money to Caracas. I can’t help but think sending SeaBees would probably be a better idea.
Considering the corruption in Venezuela, not a bad idea. The downfall of Somoza was triggered by outrage from his stealing a lot of the money intended for assistance after the 1972 earthquake in Managua. Around the time of the 2004 Recall Referendum in Venezuela, I worked for a small company that employed a lot of Venezuelan petroleum engineers. They were nearly all anti-Chavista. Having had my exposure to corrupt cops when I worked in Venezuela several decades back, I asked one of the Venezuelans if corruption was one reason that Chavez got elected. The reply came back that with Chavez, corruption was worse. And it was, I found out. With higher oil prices, more money to steal.
In 1999, Vargas suffered floods that killed an estimated 10-30 thousand: 36″ of rain in 52 hours—equivalent to about a year’s rainfall. Vargas is on the coast, some 30 miles north of Caracas. The US offered assistance, but Hugo Chavez turned the assistance down, saying it was an issue of sovereignty.
Which of course did not stop Hugo from accepting assistance from Cuba. After all, Hugo once said that if Fidel could be President of the World for five years, he would solve the world’s problems. We know how that turned out. From 1961 to present, milk production more than quadrupled in Latin America, but increased only 10-20% in Cuba.
The epicenter of the quake was in San Felipe, Yaracuy. The once-active blogger, Daniel of Venezuela News and Views, lived in Yaracuy state, but moved to France several years ago. He was of French ancestry, which enabled him to move. (Interesting that of the three once-active Venezuelan English blogs, two were run by STEM doctorates. Daniel in biology, and Miguel Octavio of Devil’s Excrement in physics.)
Some photos I have seen of the quake in Caracas indicate little damage. But other sources indicate a lot of damage.
One night in the Guatemalan highlands I felt an earthquake tremor, but nothing fell down. It was in the countryside, so not much to fall down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vargas_tragedy