Quake rattles Puerto Rico, damage reported

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck near southern Puerto Rico on Saturday, briefly knocking out power and forcing the relocation of at least 50 families on an island where some people still remain in shelters from previous quakes this year. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at a depth of nine kilometres near the city of Ponce and the towns of Guanica and Guayanilla, where hundreds of homes were destroyed by a quake in early January that killed one person and caused millions of dollars in damage.

The earthquake cracked walls, flung goods off supermarket shelves and caused a secondstorey balcony to crash in the southern coastal city of Ponce. It occurred amid a two-month lockdown and just hours after the government announced the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases since the first one was reported in March in the U.S. territory.

“This is a crisis on top of another crisis,” said Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez.

Most of the damage was reported in Ponce, where officials were still going neighbourhood by neighbourhood to assess damage as rescue crews fanned out across the region.

Gov. Wanda Vazquez said the 50 families that have to relocated will not be placed in shelters, given concerns about the coronavirus contagion. She also urged Puerto Ricans to stay home even if they want to drive to the island’s southern region to help those affected, as they did after the 6.4-magnitude quake.

In Guanica, Mayor Santos Seda said that no major damage had been reported so far.

Several aftershocks hit Puerto Rico’s southern region, including a 4.9-magnitude one.