CNN
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A powerful 7.3 earthquake hit Vanuatu on Tuesday, damaging multiple buildings, including the United States embassy in the capital Port Vila.
The quake, about 57.1 kilometers (35.5 miles) deep, rocked the Pacific island nation on Tuesday shortly after noon, local time, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The 7.3 earthquake was downgraded slightly from its initial magnitude reported by the USGS at the initial time of observation.
Multiple social media videos geolocated by CNN show damage to the building that houses the US embassy. One section of the building’s ground floor appears to have partially collapsed, with debris strewn around the embassy’s crest and several windows shattered.
CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment.
Vanuatu is a Pacific nation spread over a group of 80 islands that is home to about 330,000 people.
Katie Greenwood, a Fiji-based regional head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said there were “reports of damages in the capital.”
“Trained Red Cross volunteers are on the ground and ready to assist affected communities with pre-positioned relief items,” she wrote on X.
The US geological agency issues damage predictions, known as pagers, for powerful earthquakes.
The present quake triggered yellow pagers – or a level 2 on a scale of 4 – on both the estimated economic damage and fatality, USGS said, adding past yellow alerts “have required a local or regional level response.”
“Some casualties and damage are possible, and the impact should be relatively localized,” warned the USGS, adding “estimated economic losses are 1-10% GDP of Vanuatu.”
In total, 73,000 people experienced severe shaking. Of those that experienced severe shaking, 36,000 were people in Port-Vila, Vanuatu’s capital.
Vanuatu government websites were offline in the aftermath of the quake and phone numbers for the police and other public agencies did not connect, the Associated Press reported. Social media channels for the country’s geohazards agency and the prime minister’s office have not been updated.
Initial tsunami warnings were later cancelled.
“There is no longer a tsunami threat from this earthquake,” the National Weather Service Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. But it warned, “minor sea level fluctuations may occur in some coastal areas near the earthquake over the next few hours.”
The US only opened its Vanuatu embassy in July this year, part of a recent ramping up of its diplomatic presence in the Pacific as it compete with China for influence in the strategically vital region.
“The opening of the embassy builds upon our efforts to provide more diplomatic presence throughout the region and to engage further with our Pacific neighbors,” the State Department said at the time.
Prior to Vanuatu, the US opened embassies in two other island nations, Solomon Islands and Tonga.
