A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck in the waters northwest of Cuba on Monday morning, and the shaking rolled far enough north to rattle Central Florida, including areas near Walt Disney World.
For the FLN team, the first sign was the desk moving roughly six miles from Disney's Animal Kingdom. The tremor was felt in a broad sweep of the region, from Championsgate, Horizon West and Lake Nona to Lake Mary, Maitland, Casselberry, Waterford Lakes, Clermont, Winter Garden, Dr. Phillips, College Park, downtown Orlando, Millenia, Kissimmee, Davenport, DeLand, Lakeland, Winter Haven and near Gaylord Palms. One commenter in the 4 Corners area near Kissimmee said the shaking was strong enough to rattle a TV on its stand, while a resident in a third-floor Casselberry apartment said everything felt wobbly.
People in downtown Orlando described buildings swaying and desks and computer monitors shaking, a sign of how widely the tremors were felt across the metro area. There were no reports of damage, injuries or operational disruptions at Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando or any other Central Florida theme park.
The broader picture still depended on an official readout. The U.S. Geological Survey had not formally confirmed a new seismic event tied to the reports as of the article's writing, even though seismic databases can lag real-time felt reports by several minutes to an hour. The report also said it was hearing that Cuba may have been hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, while a USGS reference pointed to an M 6.1 event 104 km WNW of Mantua, Cuba.
What is already clear is that Monday's quake reached far beyond Cuba's waters and into daily life across Central Florida, where people felt it in offices, apartments and tourist corridors before any final USGS confirmation had caught up.
