CNN
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An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of eastern Cuba on Sunday, causing property damage in several regions, as the island continues to recover from widespread power outages and the impact of two recent hurricanes to soften.

The earthquake was reported about 24 miles (39 km) south of Bartolomé Masó before noon local time, about an hour after a magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook the area, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

“There have been landslides, damage to houses and power lines,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said, adding that authorities are assessing the situation to begin recovery efforts.

Photos from Granma province published by state-run Cubadebate showed buildings with cracks in their walls and piles of rubble strewn on the ground.

The municipality of Pilón has “suffered a lot of damage,” said Enrique Diego Arango Arias, head of Cuba’s National Seismological Survey.

“I can’t answer messages or phone calls. I haven’t been able to post. The situation is quite complicated,” he said on Facebook.

Residents of eastern Cuba told Reuters the quake was as powerful as they had ever felt before.

“Strong as ever. On other occasions we have felt the earthquake, but not as strong as now,” said Griselda Fernandez.

The earthquake was also felt in the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and Guantanamo, where deadly Hurricane Oscar struck last month.

Another storm, Rafael, slammed into western Cuba on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane, knocking out power across the island in the latest major power outage in recent weeks.

Sunday’s earthquake did not pose a significant tsunami threat, according to the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center, but it did warn that there is “a very remote possibility of tsunami waves along the coasts closest to the epicenter.”

The earthquake was apparently not felt in the capital Havana, but shockwaves did reach South Florida, with images on social media of swaying ceiling lights from a tower in Miami.