At 2:30 am Thursday morning, I awoke suddenly to my bed and more importantly, my whole house shakin and thunderin.... having been through a number of small tremors on the Island, I believed it to be merely another aftershock from a quake in Guatemala or Salvador. After going out onto my deck (posthaste) and peering down at my "bubbling" swimming pool, I realized this was no aftershock... but the real McCoy!! At 7.1 Magnitude, this 'strongest in 100 years to hit Honduras' quake's epicenter was just 27 miles from where I stood. It seemed like the shaking went on for minutes.... but I think it was about 40 seconds or so... My home is concrete, so it certainly didn't feel like a 7.1, but I'm sure it DID to some of my friends and people I've spoken with, living in wood homes...
The power went off during the quake and stayed off for a short time (a few hours). My generator kicked in and I was once again grateful for this "luxury". I went online to the USGS earthquake-as-they-happen website right away to learn of what I just went through. Real time earthquake monitoring... a very cool site.
Maybe it's because we're on an island, and maybe because the island is floating (don't quote me), but Roatan really did not receive any damage from the quake. Most people reported broken dishes and picture frames, clean up of jostled items off shelving, and the odd broken water pipe or crack in the wall, and nobody here got seriously hurt, and very few structural problems... For Roatan, Thursday was business as usual.. tourists were sun tanning, dive boats were full, restaurants were grilling fresh caught lobsters... you'd never guessed we were at the center of a 7.1!
The damage you see on TV is footage taken on the mainland... most damage due, in part, to inferior construction... (walls with little or no reinforcement bars), posts not connected to beam system... things that may save some money up front, but can be far more costly in the long run... or in a 7.1 for instance. It could have been tragically worse... but it wasn't!
Our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected from this quake.... let's hope it's another 100 years before the next one... God Bless