Earthquake

A 73-year-old tailor nailed zinc to his own roof to survive after Melissa took it. As he and thousands like him switch to concrete, Holness is warning that a poorly engineered slab roof can be just as deadly in an earthquake.

ODPEM and the UWI Earthquake Unit released free earthquake preparedness guidelines for Jamaica’s places of worship, recommending annual building inspections, drills and plans because more than 850,000 people gather in large, open worship spaces each week.

Maranatha Volunteers International resumed church construction in Cuba with a new church in Nuevitas, despite an economic crisis that forced it to ship steel and concrete from Panama, as well as power cuts, a hurricane and an earthquake.

On the morning of August 16, 2024, at approximately 8:01 am, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake rattled Jamaica. The epicenter of…

A Tongan Free Wesleyan congregation in Timaru leased, then in 2017 bought, the former St Peter’s Anglican Church, and used a $500,000 government grant for earthquake strengthening, safety work and upgrades.

The Church of England announced £9 million from its Buildings for Mission fund: £6.2 million in grants of up to £12,000 per church for urgent repairs, and £2.8 million for 30 specialist church buildings support officers.

The Latter-day Saints listed their earthquake-damaged 1926 Wells Ward chapel in Salt Lake City for $1.6 million on condition that the buyer demolish it, drawing objections from preservationists and a councillor.

After the August 2021 earthquake in Haiti, the Adventist Church counted 22 churches and four schools to rebuild and about 3,000 members with damaged property, and said reconstruction would go ahead as long as funds allowed.

Jamaica’s building code was technically finished in 2009 and tabled in Parliament in 2011. It still wasn’t fully enacted seven years later, a gap Hurricane Matthew and a 4.6 magnitude earthquake both failed to close faster.

A year after Ecuador’s 2016 earthquake, the Episcopal Diocese of Ecuador Litoral had supported four damaged churches, helped rebuild 10 houses and set up a solidarity loan programme for families.