Strong earthquake strikes Puerto Rico, damage reported

[Tony O]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-earthquake-5-7-magnitude-quake-strikes-just-south-of-the-island-today-live-updates/#

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for the link.

Good luck to everyone in the affected area. 

[c-boy]

oh no ! anything over five on that island can be desasterious.

[mom says]

Those poor people just can't seem to catch a break.

[evandbob]

Quake was off the southeastern coast of PR off Guanica, nowhere near San Juan and the cruise and airports.  Hope everyone there is okay!

[bonsai3s]

Hoping that everyone's ok.

[Stinger-pr]

It has been a harrowing three weeks for those living in the southwest coast of PR. They are getting quakes well over 4.0 at least once or twice a week, sometimes once or twice a day! There was a 5.8 quake on Monday morning followed by a few more over 4.0 during the day. About 5 houses from the same community collapsed. Thankfully no one was seriously injured. There was a natural rock arch on the coast of the town of Guayanilla that also collapsed, erasing of of the more prominent attractions of the area (think something like a rock window at Arches National Park but on the water). While felt, no damage has been reported anywhere in the San Juan metro area.

[alfaeric]

Just brushed up on the activity in Haiti 10 years ago- and it was a large quake followed by a lot of aftershocks.  So I'm hoping that this is just slowly letting things relax.  it will be interesting to visit next weekend- hope we still can, as we have stuff to take care of in Ponce.

[alfaeric]

Things are happening a LOT right now- reading the USGS website, there have been 15 aftershocks after the 6.4, including a 5.6 10 min after the 6.4, and a 5.8 at 7:18 local time.  I'm sure more will be happening.

[vettegal99]

Weather Channel reporting power is out on entire island.  

[mayleeman]

1 hour ago, vettegal99 said:

Weather Channel reporting power is out on entire island.  

Power is out because apparently there are automatic shutoffs triggered by the quake (CNN). I don't think it is due to damage to the power facilities.

[Aviator of the Seas]

9 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

Power is out because apparently there are automatic shutoffs triggered by the quake (CNN). I don't think it is due to damage to the power facilities.

Exactly.  The power company is estimating that power should start coming back by noon.

[alfaeric]

1 hour ago, alfaeric said:

Things are happening a LOT right now- reading the USGS website, there have been 15 aftershocks after the 6.4, including a 5.6 10 min after the 6.4, and a 5.8 at 7:18 local time.  I'm sure more will be happening.

Now up to 23 aftershocks greater than 2.5 just after 10am local.

[durangokid]

Ponce is one of our ports of call on Serenade next month.  Prayers for everyone affected.  Waiting to hear from Royal if that itinerary changes.

[I like vacation]

Scheduled to stop at San Juan next week on the 18th with HAL.  I wonder if that will be cancelled.

[alfaeric]

3 hours ago, alfaeric said:

Now up to 23 aftershocks greater than 2.5 just after 10am local.

The number of +2.5 aftershocks seems to be going down...  there's only been two more since that last post.

 

Hopefully, this is the fault winding down in it's pressure.

[alfaeric]

8 hours ago, alfaeric said:

The number of +2.5 aftershocks seems to be going down...  there's only been two more since that last post.

 

Hopefully, this is the fault winding down in it's pressure.

Earth, stop already.  

 

In the last 24 hours, there were 70 earthquakes with a magnitude over 2.5.  66 of them after the big one this morning.  

[CanadianKate]

Still lots of tremors (70 over last 24 hours to 8 a.m. on Jan 8, including a 4.2 an hour ago) but I've now learned even 4.0 will feel like a truck driving by so I'm a little calmer. 

Must be hard for the people there, though. So I'll make more of an effort to focus on how this is affecting them, and less on how it will affect my trip there at the end of the month. 

 

 

[DISFANS3]

Hope for the best..

[Desert Cruizers]

Prayers go out to everyone affected. having lived with earthquakes all my life in So Calif, anytime you have a quake 5 or greater, it is normal to have numerous aftershocks  up to 2 months or more. We will be coming to San Juan in March for our cruise and staying in Old San Juan. 

[alfaeric]

1 hour ago, Desert Cruizers said:

Prayers go out to everyone affected. having lived with earthquakes all my life in So Calif, anytime you have a quake 5 or greater, it is normal to have numerous aftershocks  up to 2 months or more. We will be coming to San Juan in March for our cruise and staying in Old San Juan. 

Things started on 12/28, and since then, there has been 307 earthquakes over a magnitude of 2.5 (17 over 4.5).  Hopefully, that peaked over the last two days, with a few over 5 and one over 6.

 

It very much seems that the earth is calming down- this morning, the previous 24 hours had 70 quakes, now (6pm AST) it's only 41, and only 4 since noon AST.  Since we head down next week, I REALLY hope this calms down before the weekend.

[Desert Cruizers]

21 minutes ago, alfaeric said:

Things started on 12/28, and since then, there has been 307 earthquakes over a magnitude of 2.5 (17 over 4.5).  Hopefully, that peaked over the last two days, with a few over 5 and one over 6.

 

It very much seems that the earth is calming down- this morning, the previous 24 hours had 70 quakes, now (6pm AST) it's only 41, and only 4 since noon AST.  Since we head down next week, I REALLY hope this calms down before the weekend.

I am sure they will and the magnitude will drop to the 2 or 3 which are barely noticeable. We had a large quake a little North of Los Angeles  during the World Series and the camera began shaking and within 2/3 seconds the shock wave traveled some 120 miles to where I live. I was sitting on my sofa and it felt weird feeling it moving. 

[Aviator of the Seas]

So people have a visual idea of where most of the damage took place and the danger was.  For reference, Puerto Rico is about the size of Connecticut:

 

[Aviator of the Seas]

Also, I am happy to report that most of the San Juan Metropolitan area has power back.  For sure, the grid will remain unstable until the power plant that was damaged, and which supplied 20% of our power, can be repaired.  In its place they are using back up power plants full time and FEMA will be bringing in some massive but portable generators to shore up the grid.

 

Thank you all for your concern and support.  As I said after the hurricanes of 2017, the best way you can help our island is to come visit and enjoy your vacation here.  It is perfectly safe and we won't charge you extra for the "earthquake experience". 🙂

 

Edited January 10, 2020 by Aviator of the Seas

[Desert Cruizers]

7 minutes ago, Aviator of the Seas said:

Also, I am happy to report that most of the San Juan Metropolitan area has power back.  For sure, the grid will remain unstable until the power plant that was damaged, and which supplied 20% of our power, can be repaired.  In its place they are using back up power plants full time and FEMA will be bringing in some massive but portable generators to shore up the grid.

 

Thank you all for your concern and support.  As I said after the hurricanes of 2017, the best way you can help our island is to come visit and enjoy your vacation here.  It is perfectly safe and we won't charge you extra for the "earthquake experience". 🙂

 

Thank you for the update, my daughter & I are looking forward to our first visit in March and are staying in Old San Juan for two nights.