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6.4 Earthquake Hits Puerto Rico

This is awful to hear as I wake up. Entire island seems to be out of power right now. 1 dead at least.
Assuming just about every AM and FM is off the air (minus WKAQ and WAPA).
Prayers once again for this island. The awful hurricane in '17 and now this.
 
crainbebo said:
This is awful to hear as I wake up. Entire island seems to be out of power right now. 1 dead at least.
Assuming just about every AM and FM is off the air (minus WKAQ and WAPA).
Prayers once again for this island. The awful hurricane in '17 and now this.
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Nearly no stations are off the air. In PR every station, big or small, as emergency power and even back-up studios at the transmitter site.

Generally, when building or remodeling, a generator and fuel tanks that will last 5 to 7 days are planned for. Because the Island is not connected to a grid, failures are common. Plus the power infrastructure is poor, so short power outages can happen as often as a couple of times a week.

Where I lived, in Rio Piedras, nearly all my neighbors had generators as did most stores and gas stations.

The main TV stations have wall to wall coverage. I am watchinggWAPA TV where some old friends work. I was watching when the second big one hit at around 6:20 AM local time and you could see everyone ducking under tables and all the studio gear shaking.... and that was in Guaynabo, about 80 miles from the epicenter. .
 
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kf4rca said:
https://www.voanews.com/usa/puerto-rico-earthquake-aftermath-worsens-government-overwhelmed
Pretty bad down there. Trump declares emergency. More than 250,000 without water.
Probably water mains are transite, a very brittle asbestos cement piping material used before PVC became popular.
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The water went off because the electric system is set to trip if there is an earthquake, shutting down all generating facilities. And no electricity means no pumps for the water system. This procedure is needed because PR is not connected to a grid so a major failure will nearly always take the whole Island down, or at least a significant sector.

The affected area is sparsely populated and on the SW corner of the Island, about 80 or so miles from San Juan across the central mountain ranges.

Early pipes were cast iron, then locally made ferro concrete before synthetics came around.
 
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/us/puerto-rico-electricity-power-earthquake.html

Update 3 more people died from the Puerto Rico Quake.


SAN JUAN, P.R. — More than half a million Puerto Ricans were still without electricity on Friday, three days after an earthquake shook the island and led thousands of people to sleep outside for days, fearing more tremors.

The island of 3.2 million people lost power immediately after the magnitude-6.4 earthquake on Tuesday, and electrical crews have worked around the clock to ramp up additional electricity generation to replace a major power plant that was heavily damaged.

The Costa Sur plant, located in the southern town of Guayanilla, had “destruction on a grand scale,” said José Ortiz, executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

One person was directly killed by the earthquake, but at least three people have died of apparent heart attacks that may be related to the earthquake’s effects, local officials said on Friday.
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The very early pipes were probably wood (cedar).
Earthquakes wreck havoc on underground utilities.
Marginal joints invariably fail.
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...c843a6-347f-11ea-9313-6cba89b1b9fb_story.html

Update an Aftershock has hit Puerto Rico.

GUÁNICA, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico has not stopped shaking since a 6.4-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday forced thousands of families to sleep outside, jeopardized the territory's weak power infrastructure and frayed the nerves of residents who have endured more than two years of catastrophe after catastrophe.

Unceasing seismic activity on a fault just off the southern coast has pushed damage estimates to $110 million, and municipal authorities are weighing evacuation orders for residents in pueblos such as Guánica, where another 6-magnitude aftershock Saturday rocked the region and threatened to topple anything that hasn’t already collapsed.

Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced said Saturday that she had signed a request for a “major disaster declaration” that requires approval from the White House, a move that would release more resources for the power grid, building inspectors and individual assistance. The island is still waiting on more than $18 billion in federal funding after Hurricane Maria devastated much of the island in 2017.
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https://apnews.com/fd6b234395379a876bddc74e1b882d43

And a 5.9 Quake has just hit Puerto Rico


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A magnitude 5.9 quake shook Puerto Rico on Saturday, causing millions of dollars of damage along the island’s southern coast, where previous recent quakes have toppled homes and schools.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 8:54 a.m. (1254 GMT) quake hit 8 miles (13 kilometers) southeast of Guanica at a shallow depth of 3 miles (5 kilometers). It was followed by several aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.2 temblor less than two minutes later.

No injuries or deaths were reported, officials said.

Saturday’s quake occurred four days after a 6.4 magnitude quake in the same area and amid a spate of more than 1,200 mostly small quakes over the past 15 days, all at shallow depths.

Gov. Wanda Vazquez estimated damage from Tuesday’s earthquake at $110 million, with a total of 559 structures affected. She said her administration was immediately releasing $2 million to six of the most affected municipalities.
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