Seismologist Dr Joan Lutchman says there needs to be urgency in putting measures in place for a response to a high-magnitude earthquake in T&T.
“Nature won’t wait till we are ready,” Lutchman said yesterday in a telephone interview, after a 5.2 magnitude earthquake which was felt in parts of Trinidad on Wednesday night.
Lutchman said the country needed to address short-term responses as well as developing proper building codes. “We should have measures in place so if the disaster was to take place tomorrow, we won’t face the same situation as Haiti in 2010.
“There is a real possibility that we would face the same situation if we were to be hit with a high-magnitude earthquake now,” she added.
While the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) conducted several emergency response drills across T&T in 2013, not even the country’s capital city has an approved evacuation plan. Lutchman said the region was currently experiencing a period of elevated earthquake activity.
“We have been having several earthquakes in the region, with the most taking place in the Leeward Islands,” Lutchman said yesterday. In fact, following Wednesday’s earthquake, there were two earthquakes within hours of each other yesterday, one near Basseterre, St Kitts, and the other near Martinique.
The first earthquake near Basseterre was a magnitude 3.8, while the second had a magnitude of 4.3. “The activity is a little elevated but sometimes that is what happens, we go through periods of elevated activity,” Lutchman said.
She said Wednesday’s earthquake took place north of the Paria Peninsula, off the coast of Venezuela and was felt as far south as Penal, and in areas such as Sangre Grande and west Trinidad.
“It was a moderate event. If it was a little closer to us it would have given us quite a shock,” Lutchman said.
“Our island is in an active zone so we will experience earthquake activity,” she added.
She said she did not expect much damage to result from Wednesday’s earthquake but said a bigger earthquake in that same zone could have resulted in damage.