CENTRAL FLORIDA — A 6.1-magnitude earthquake that began in the Gulf Monday afternoon was felt across the Sunshine State, including Central Florida.
Residents in Altamonte Springs, Clermont, and Winter Garden reported feeling their homes and businesses shake. Viewers send in their videos to Eyewitness News, which captured the quake in real time.
“I felt a small tremor,” said Ken Wesmoreland, a Winter Garden resident. “I thought it might have been something on the highway, a big truck. So I kind of looked around. And a few minutes later, a larger tremor hit.”
Wesmoreland said he knew after the second tremor that an earthquake that struck the region. “We lived in Las Vegas, so we had been through a few in it,” he said. “It will kind of throw you off a little bit, make you think you have vertigo.”
A RING video Wesmoreland provided to Eyewitness News showed the moment when the series of tremors struck his home.
The U.S Geological Survey said the earthquake started in the Gulf of America off the coast of Cuba around 2 pm Monday, about 60 miles northwest of Cuba. USGS said it was the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the area since around 1900.
Lazaro Martinez said his family in Cuba felt the earth move, but didn’t realize it was an earthquake until he told them.
“We have access to information that they don’t,” Martinez said. “So it is very beneficial that we can call them and let them know, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on.’ ”
No injuries were reported.
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