By Leyla Santiago, Nicole Chavez and Jason Hanna
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake jolted southern Puerto Rico on Tuesday morning, killing at least one man, damaging homes and cutting power and water service to swaths of the island a day after a 5.8 magnitude quake shook the US territory, officials said.
The 6.4 quake struck at 4:24 a.m. (3:24 a.m. ET), centered just off Puerto Rico's southern coast, about 6 miles south Indios, a town of a couple thousand people, the US Geological Survey said. Several aftershocks followed, including a magnitude 5.6 temblor striking just south of Indios at 7:18 a.m., USGS said.
In the city of Ponce, roughly 15-mile drive east of Indios, a 77-year-old man was killed and at least eight others were injured Tuesday, Ponce emergency management director Angel Vasquez said.
More than 400,000 of Puerto Rico's 3.1 million people would have felt strong or very strong shaking, the USGS estimates, though the entire island would have felt lesser effects.
In Ponce, workers at Damas hospital were evacuating all patients Tuesday morning except for those in intensive care, the facility's Executive Director Dr. Pedro Benitez told WAPA.
"(Patients) were running around the hallways, so we had to get them out of the building for their own safety," Benitez said.
Tuesday's quake continues a series of seismic events that have shaken Puerto Rico across 11 days. Hundreds of small earthquakes have hit the island since December 28, the USGS says, including at least 29 over magnitude 4.0.
Monday morning's 5.8 tremor struck just south of Indios. While that quake damaged some homes in Guanica and Guayanilla, no serious injuries were reported.
The earthquakes since December 28 appear to have been foreshocks to Tuesday morning's largest quake, CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said.
By Nicole Acevedo and Ben Kesslen
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Puerto Rico early Tuesday, killing at least one person and causing a power outage across the island, as well as structural damage to roads and bridges especially in the southwestern region.
There have been at least 51 aftershocks since the earthquake, the largest in a series of quakes, hit at 4:24 a.m. Federal agencies monitoring the seismic activity say the tremors and quakes could continue for the next few days, according to Gov. Wanda Vázquez.
At a press conference Tuesday morning, Vázquez announced the island is in an official state of emergency.
"We've never been exposed to this kind of emergency in 102 years," she said in Spanish.
A spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency told NBC News in a statement that it had received Vázquez's request for a federal emergency declaration, but that the request is still "under consideration." FEMA personnel already on the island are "working closely with Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau." The agency also "deployed two Incident Management Assistance Teams to the island" and activated certain regional response teams to help.
Government offices and schools were closed, and some hospitals, especially in the southwestern region, were evacuated for safety reasons. Residents, especially in the south, have been terrified to go into their homes for fear that another quake will bring the structures down.
"Every single one of you know how your homes were built. Don't put yourselves at risk. Your homes can be replaced but we can't replace your or your children's lives," Vázquez said.
Ponce, one of the island's largest cities, has no power, intermittent access to water and is grappling with landslides affecting its main highway.
Residents scared to go back into their homes are seeking refuge inside their cars parked in open areas and public parking lots, she said.
Meléndez said her municipality is putting up tents in open areas and parks for people looking for refuge, away from structures that could collapse. According to her, five hospitals in the area are functional.
About 300,000 customers who get their water supply through electrical water pumps in Puerto Rico don't have access to water in their homes.
No comments:
Post a Comment