A 7.1 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Honduras

At early Thursday, May 29, 2009, a powerful high magnitude earthquake has hit the Honduras coast. The earthquake was said to be 7.1 in magnitude.

The powerful earthquake has caused commotion to the residents of Honduras causing a lot of them to run into the streets throughout the North of Honduras and up to Guatemala. The powerful earthquake has caused death to a teenage boy because of the great intensity that caused knocking down of homes. The earthquake has also sparked a tsunami alert at the Caribbean Coast of Central America.

The earthquake actually struck at the northeast coast of Honduras which is distal to the scuba-diving resort island of Roatan. A lot of buildings were damaged in this country that inhabits almost 7 million people.

According to the emergency service officials, a 15 year old boy was found dead at La Lima which is a town 100 miles at north of the Tegucigalpa capital. This is because the ceiling of his house has collapsed.

In general, Honduras doesn't have a lot of tall buildings; however, according to the reports, a lot of homes have collapsed as well as churches that were damaged.

At Roatan, the rescue officials reported that the earth quake has caused the power to shut down and also some minor damages to the buildings. People went outside of their homes and advised to stay away from the shore because a tsunami might occur as an aftermath.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has raised a tsunami alert for Honduras, Belize, and Guatemala. However, the alerted was lifted after an hour.

On the other hand, the town at the northwest of Honduras, which is Santa Barbara, has experienced a lot of damages because there have been many houses that collapsed and not to mention the church ceiling that fell. This has caused a lot of people to panic and run around the streets in addition to the power interruption that occurred.

The same happened at the port of Puerto Cortes while at the city of San Pedro Sula, a fire had occurred. The rescue officials also said that a bridge has collapsed in the city of El Progreso as for La Lima, a lot of televisions have crashed to the floor of the homes.

The initial report for the earthquake's magnitude was 7.4. This earthquake has truly caused a lot of tremors to the people of Honduras as it happened when most of the people are sleeping.

Source: http://www.canada.com/news/magnitude+earthquake+strikes+Honduras/1638725/story.html