Residents of Vizag woke up to mild tremors on the morning of Sunday, November 14, as the city witnessed a quake of 1.8 magnitude on the Richter scale around 7.13 am. Many residents said they heard an explosion-like sound, and then felt the tremors. At the time of writing, it is unclear what this sound was. The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation said that the tremor was felt across the city around 7.14 am, asking citizens to take precautionary steps to avoid possible earthquake impact. “In case of any earthquake like experience, come out of houses and stay in open safe spaces,” GVMC said.
Deccan Chronicle reported that many people ran out of their homes and gathered on the streets as a precaution. According to the National Center for Seismology, the quake was 5 km deep, and its epicentre was close to the VUDA Park Lighthouse, off the Vizag coast.
Vizag earthquake footage with loud sound#vizag pic.twitter.com/Oydfc7VsG8
— BondCreator (@BondCreatorYT) November 14, 2021
Earlier on August 24, mild tremors were felt in parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh following an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter Scale in the Bay of Bengal. People in Visakhapatnam, Nellore and Prakasam along the coast reported having felt the tremors. The National Center for Seismology had said that the 5.1-magnitude earthquake had a depth of 10 km and occurred in the Bay of Bengal, 296 km to the south-southeast of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. This was also confirmed by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Hyderabad. Tremors were also felt in parts of northern Tamil Nadu, including Chennai.
Tremors in #Visakhapatnam.
— P Pavan (@PavanJourno) November 14, 2021
"Experienced like a bomb blast in the land around 7.15am. Earlier experienced some earth quakes. Those are just shakes. This time it is different", from a friend at Seethammadhara in #Vizag . #AndhraPradesh
#Vizsg #Mild #tremors shook most parts of Vizag at 7. 14 am. Panic stricken people in several areas including NAD, MVP, Peda Waltair ran out of their homes. Reasons are not known immediately. There were mild tremors on Aug 24. @Kalyan_TNIE @gsvasu_TNIE @xpressandhra
— Janardhana Rao (@janar_TNIE) November 14, 2021
Felt tremors for 2-3mins followed after a strange sound. Anyone felt the same?#Visakhapatnam #earthquakes #vizag
— Giridhar Malla (@giridharmalla) November 14, 2021
Felt tremors in seethamapeta #Vizag
— Ravi (@Ravivizag69) November 14, 2021
A 2019 report from the Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC) of IIIT-Hyderabad had ranked Vijayawada among cities with a high risk of an earthquake disaster, among 50 cities, and 1 district studied across India. While Chennai was categorised under cities with Medium EDRI, Vijayawada was found to be in the High EDRI group. The study suggested steps that the construction industry and the government must take, including outlawing unsafe practices, retrofitting unsafe constructions, and having policies in place to ensure that constructions are earthquake resistant, to mitigate the damage.