A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook Belize on Thursday morning May 28.  The damage was concentrated in the south where the quake damaged and sunk homes in Monkey River Village, cracked streets and toppled piers in Placencia, and it cut off Independence Village's water and power supply after the tremors forced the collapse of the village's water reservoir and shut down its electrical substation. 

The quake hit at 2:24 a.m. on Thursday off the coast of Belize and Honduras, with its epicenter located 140 miles from the coast of Belize City and in the heart of Monkey River Village where its 200 residents were startled out of their sleep. 

Malvi Garbutt awoke to hear dogs barking and what she calls, "a rolling".  Garbutt peeped outside and thought rain was coming.  Instead she saw stars in the sky, and moments later she says, "the house start to shake up, it was cracking and making a lot of noise."  Garbutt and her three young children ran for cover under the table as she, "felt the house start to shake up…and felt when it sink and water start to gush out from around the posts."  Gatbutt's wooden home remains standing, but it is now crooked.  She says her house is "high and low, it feels bad.  It feels like you are going up a hill and down a hill… but I am still alive, I have my life." 

Clive Garbutt, another Monkey River resident, lost part of his hotel to the sudden gush of water.  He was asleep and awoke to find "everything just shaking and then right then it took me a few seconds to realize that it was an earthquake." He says, "When I got outside, most of this property was under water and water was just spouting out of the ground." 

Some residents report seeing the water spouts as high as 20 feet in the air.  Geologist Andre Cho says the water spouts are known as liquefaction and are as a result of seismic waves passing through loose sediments, a common occurrence in earthquakes. 

According to Monkey River Village Chairman Mario Muschamp, twenty homes were damaged and eight of those were extensively damaged.  Working closely with Toledo East Area Representative and Minister of Human Development Hon. Peter Eden Martinez, one thousand gallons of water was delivered to the villagers by midday on Thursday. 

In the village of Placencia there were no classes at the St. John's Anglican Memorial School on Thursday because there was no potable water.  The quake cracked the village's water tower and so the Village Council emptied the reservoir to relieve the pressure, leaving water only at the bottom.  This was done pending an assessment from an engineer. 

The tremor in Placencia also left six to eight inch cracks on the main street in Placencia in the area in front of the Belize Bank.  It also topped the Sea Horse Dive Shop pier.  Owner Brian Young says, "I think we dropped about four feet and all the posts just went right down like some other building on the mainland. It just went right down."  The quake is also being blamed for extensive damage to the Placencia Producers Fishermen Cooperative's building, part of which, had sunk.  A pier on which there is a fueling station was also reportedly damaged in Placencia. 

A short boat ride from Placencia is the village of Independence; the quake brought the village's 18,000 gallon water reservoir that was built on a 30 foot concrete tower crumbling down.  Village Chairman George Murray who lives across the street from the reservoir says, "I heard when something dropped and immediately I told my wife that is the tank and I came out with a flashlight...and came and saw the tank on the ground." 

The shake of the 7.1 magnitude quake damaged BEL's Independence Village Substation which plunged the village into darkness for 90 minutes and sent ripples of panic into the homes of most of the village's five thousand residents.  Dale Antonio says his bed, "started to dance punta."  He at first thought that his daughter was jumping around but later, "the bed started to rock even more…the house to me felt like it was rooting out of the ground.  It was frightening because it was a cement foundation and it feel like it was rising."  He says "I told my family to get underneath the doorway to make sure they are safe."  

Water supply was restored to Independence Village by two on Thursday afternoon. There were no reports of other significant damage to other public infrastructure or homes in the village.  Assorted damages were also reported along Belize's southern coastline in villages including Seine Bight and Sittee River.  In Belize City, a few house shook but none actually fell. 

The Belize District Emergency Team was, however, on alert and blared sirens early on Thursday morning informing residents about a tsunami warning that had been issued for the coast of Belize.  Tsunamis normally follow earthquakes and are as a result of shifts in the ocean floor.  It is a large body of water travelling at high speed towards the coast.

Geologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources Andre Cho says while Thursday's powerful earthquake may have been shocking, it shouldn't be surprising because Belize is in an earthquake prone zone.  Cho adds that we are, "near to the transplant plate boundary between the North American and Caribbean plate." An earthquake is caused by a movement in those plates.  Cho warns, "An earthquake is a real hazard that we live with and we need to be prepared for."  Most Belizeans though were caught off guard at 2:24 on Thursday morning May 28.  There were no fatalities in Belize, but six were reported in Honduras.