Earthquake in PR this AM

Hope everyone is well and safe 

It's hitting the news

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.miamih … 96843.htmlhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatod … 2823086001

Looks like there's a fair bit of damage so casualties are likely.

Scary. Hope it's not a precursor for bigger things.

OMG! Thats horrible. Hasn't this island been thru enough.....Prayers going out to everyone

Ok. It's not unusual to have these quakes according to the specialist.   Theres only a 2% chance that within 2 weeks we will be hit with a larger quake. Stay safe and prepare as much as possible

Another earthquake today before dawn.  It  felt fairly strong.   Electric power is down due to damage at power plant on the south coast.   

Reports of damage and fatalities on the news.  No tsunami warning at this time.

The highest one so far has been a 6.4, while it has been felt in a great part of the island, the damages are mostly in the south west and west southwest of the island. Eastern parts of the island have received no damages.

Several houses on stills have completely collapsed, crushing cars and other items in the lower section. One very old church collapsed, and at least 1 school will need be demolished.

Several other schools have received damage, the government is in the process of evaluating the condition of schools and other government buildings in the area.

Most of these structures damaged are due to being old, or shoddy work, most houses were made by the owner, with no plans, no permits and not even bothering to meet standards. Schools were build under contract and subcontracted further with little to no supervision and with lots of corruption, so they are not u to standards.

Current standards date back to 2014, and require the houses and building can resist 180 miles sustained winds and a minimum of level 7 earthquakes. Historic buildings and other natural attractions would never meet codes either.

A lot of scared people with just 2 deaths and 1 of those may be unrelated.

The main thing for the whole island is that everyone lost power, I lost it for 12 hours, some people still do not have power 3 days later and some may have to wait a couple of weeks

A poweplant was damaged, they are still evaluating it, 1 person say 4 months to repair, another say a year. Probably that means 2 years

FEMA is here, but they are limited on the help they can give based on what is asked of them and based on law. For example during Huracanes Maria people with no title to their property basically got no help,. I could be wrong but I do not believe FEMA is going to spend 100,000 or more rebuilding these homes, but that is my opinion and likely the amount of help is going to depend on the size and age of the property

I live in San Juan and starting to look for a inverter (quiet) generator for my condo.  I live in a garden apartment and just want one for fridge, fan and ipads, phone.  Any suggestions on Honda vs. others?  They say the Honda whisper is the quietest.  I am confused on what to get and where ... I guess non available on Island now.  I have lights but want this as a back up..  Any suggestions appreciated.  Be safe all

My wife and I just returned this afternoon.  I went for a conference in San Juan, but we left early for a bit of a vacation.  Spent Sunday night in Ponce, and got dumped out of bed at 6:30 am (Monday) by a significant quake, 5-point something.  No damage to the hotel or any of the buildings. as far as we could see.  Spent the day enjoying El Dia de los Reyes.  Packed our bags for our next hotel, in Boqueron.  Unceremoniously dumped out of bed at 4:30 am (Tuesday), by the 6.4 that Rey mentioned.  Heavy damage to the hotel (Aquarius).  Hotel closed by management that morning.  Began heading north to look for new lodgings.  Stopped to try and find breakfast and the next quake, another 5-something rumbled through.  Lights out across the island -- no traffic lights and everyone on generator.  Long lines at gas stations.

Many on the north side of the island are mobilizing to assist those in the region around Guanica, the epicenter of the quakes.

Official reports on earthquakes, from the US Geological Survey:

https://www.usgs.gov/products/data-and- … arthquakes

Yes you were right next to the issue Warner. Other than the lost of power most of the island is unaffected. I am in the east coast and so far I have yet to feel any of the quakes, a lot of people around me have felt them, but no damage on our side.
It is mostly shoddy work properties and houses on stills around the epicenter. About 200 properties have been affected about half severely. But people are scare to be in their homes even if they have no damage.
Most of the island have power now, I got mine in about 12 hours.

A very important part of all of this is that while the huge quakes happened in the very early hours of the morning while people were asleep, only 1 person was killed. A partial wall an old man in his 90s had the wall fall on him. He was building the wall and had not completed it yet, it had no re-barb re enforcement.

I was vacationing in Aguadilla the entire time.
Which is opposite of the epicenter but we could still feel them!!
It was a pretty wild experience, especially coming from a Californian that lived 10 years in the bay are where I never felt anything that strong!

Like Rey mentioned first one hit Mon morning About 5.8, I was laying in bed and it started to move.. I was like wtf. 

Then the ‘big' one 6.4  hit Tue morning, woke all of us from our sleep!  You could practically hear it rumbling!   Then the power went out for 4 days!
And had almost an entire day without water.

Power went back on Fri night! You could hear people cheering in my barrio .

Then just when things were feeling normal bam another 6.0 hit Sat morning!!
It was so loud ... the ground was rumbling..
People in my barrio started yelling.


I seriously contemplated taking the next flight home.  But changed my mind.
Ended up going to the Sanse fest and ended the trip on a high note.

Btw, some big comet was spotted over the island yesterday..
What's next!!

We were in Rincon and was woken up by the one early in the morning. Power went out for a day but was back on the next day.  No damage in our area.

We bought a Powermate 2200 invertor, to keep the fridge going. We got it at home depot, Amazon may be less expensive for a backup.

In reference to the Inverter... how quiet is it?  I went to HD and did not find any.  I am looking for a quiet Invertor for my condo... for fridge. a light or fan and charge my iphone and ipad

I would look at what consumer reports says on decibel levels if it's not on the specs.  My parents have the honda and I think it's the quietest one on the market.  You might even get a custom cut piece of plywood or other barrier and put it between your condo and whatever generator you decide to purchase.  We have a whole house propane generac generator from HD but it was installed in the area we enjoy outdoors so I'm looking at having a concrete wall built to better buffer the noise.  We have a small 2200 generac we bought after Maria and had flown down to us in PR to do exactly what you want for yours to handle at the house.  It is a little noisier than the Honda.