Puerto Ricans woke early Tuesday morning to the familiar nightmare of the earth shaking beneath their homes. A deadly 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit the island at 4:24 a.m. local time (1:24 a.m. in Utah), killing at least one person and injuring others in the southern coastal city of Ponce, the Associated Press reported.

The earthquake was centered a few miles off of Puerto Rico’s southern coast and at a relatively shallow depth of six miles, according to the United States Geological Society. 

Hundreds of earthquakes have been recorded in the area in the last few weeks, with more than 400 quakes measuring at least 2.0 near Puerto Rico since December 28, 2019, according to USGS. Because of the shallow depth and nearness to the island, USGS said that “dozens of these events have likely been felt on land,” but significant damage from those smaller quakes would have been unlikely. 

On Monday morning, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 destroyed several homes, created power outages and caused small landslides, reported the Associated Press.

Dozens of aftershocks continue to be reported by the USGS. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has not issued a tsunami warning for the island. 

Late Tuesday morning, Latter-day Saint missionaries in Puerto Rico were letting their families know they were unharmed and accounted for. 

Utahns have a history of responding to natural disasters in Puerto Rico. After Category 5 Hurricane Maria made landfall there in September 2017, Utahns began efforts to help 3.4 million of their fellow American to rebuild. 

After initially riding out the hurricane, Latter-day Saint missionaries were evacuated from the island in September 2017 but returned that December to help locate people displaced by the storm and assist in other service projects. 

If you’d like to support relief efforts in Puerto Rico, you can donate to these organizations, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer:

We will continue to update this list as more agencies become available.

Comment