BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

A top regional disaster official says Thursday's powerful earthquake which jolted several Caribbean countries highlighted some deficiencies in the region's earthquake disaster plan.

Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency coordinator, Jeremy Collymore, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that a strategic plan will now have to be drafted based on the response of various countries to the 7.3 magnitude quake which was centred just off Martinique.

"We have recognised the need for scaling up our earthquake readiness and that's why earlier this year we launched an earthquake readiness programme and this certainly galvanises the commitment for participating states, businesses and individuals to take action in that direction.

"The readiness plan will have to deal with how we would respond to people who occupy buildings, knowing how to behave and the whole idea of accounting for people in those buildings," he said.

Communication a concern

Collymore said communication was another area of concern as people need to have an understanding of what to do and where to go in the event of an earthquake.

"Some reports of mega fractures, people scampering from buildings, the general indication is that our earthquake readiness still needs a lot of action in terms of public education," he told CMC.

Collymore highlighted Antigua, which was impacted by an earthquake in 1974, as one of the countries which was able to undertake its 'critical facility assessments' as soon as the shaking settled.

However, he said in other parts of the Caribbean, it is clear that the earthquake was a new experience.

Richard Robertson, head of the Seismic Research Unit of the University of the West Indies St. Augustine campus, said the centre of the quake which was located just off the north coast of Martinique propagated seismic waves that went as far north as Puerto Rico and as far south s Guyana.

"It is not unusual given the size and depth that makes it propagated that far.

"Certainly, it is within the realms of event that can happen in the region and certainly it shows that we need to take seismic risk more seriously that we really do," he told CMC.

He said the earthquake was related to the normal movements of tectonic plates since the Caribbean is in an area where different parts of the Earth virtually cross each other.

"From time to time, that movement causes fractures to occur beneath the Earth's surface and when they occur, they could cause shaking of the ground. The volcano Kick Em Jenny is related to that same process but was not responsible for this activity," Richardson said.