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Earthquake Off Honduras Kills 6
May 28 (Bloomberg) -- A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck under the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Honduras today, killing six people, closing the nations largest port and causing a bridge to fall in the north of the Central American country.Puerto Cortes on the Caribbean coast will be closed at least until tomorrow, though the countrys coffee-growing and other export industries were largely unharmed, Marcos Burgos, the director of the countrys Permanent Emergency Commission, said in a phone interview. In addition to the deaths, 40 people were injured, he said. A section of a bridge over the Ulua River, Hondurass biggest waterway, collapsed in the town of El Progreso, Jose Rosario Bonanno Zaldivas, minister of public works, transport and housing, said on HRN radio. The bridge is the countrys link to its second-largest city, San Pedro Sula, and Bonanno Zaldivas said it would take at least 14 months to rebuild. The quake hit at 2:24 a.m. Honduras time, 63 kilometers (39 miles) northeast of the island of Roatan, at a depth of 10 kilometers, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement. The epicenter was 320 kilometers north-northeast of the capital Tegucigalpa. The closest land to the quake was in the palm- fringed Bay Islands, famed for beaches, coral reefs and diving. Tremors were felt in neighboring countries, including Guatemala City. The quake was the largest along an unnamed fault line off the coast of Honduras since a 6.0-magnitude temblor in 2002, the geological survey said. A tsunami watch issued within minutes of the quake for Honduras, Belize and Guatemala was later canceled. The four runways at the countrys main international airport werent damaged, said Bonanno Zaldivas. Authorities are assessing the damage to the port at Cortes, and it may reopen tomorrow if the facilitys equipment is safe to operate, Burgos said. Posted by: Steve White 2009-05-29 |
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