November 19, 2021
Hormuzgan province was struck by a rare double quake November 14 that killed two people the first fatal quake recorded in Iran since two years ago.
The quakes struck about 70 kilometers (40 miles) north of Bandar Abbas in Hormuzgan province. The two quakes hit about one mile and one minute apart.
They were recorded at 6.0 and 6.3 on the Richter scale by the US Geological Survey, and at 6.4 and 6.3 by the Iranian Seismological Center.
The first to die was reported to be a 22-year-old man who was killed when an electric power pole toppled on his head. The other death was not described.
The Red Crescent Society said at least 137 villages suffered damages from the quakes. The quakes hit at about 3:30 p.m. when most villagers would be outside. More villages may yet be found to have been damaged by the quake, but landslides blocked roads and made searches difficult.
The deadliest quakes tend to be those that hit in the middle of the night when most villagers are in bed and their mudbrick homes collapse on them.
The Red Crescent Society said 70 people were taken to hospitals for injuries, but only 22 remained overnight.
A video filmed in Bandar Abbas showed huge clouds of dirt and dust rising from the mountains outside the city as the quake shook the region.
The last quake in Iran that caused any fatalities was in East Azerbaijan province on November 8, 2019, when five people died.
