Weeks after a deadly earthquake, Puerto Rico is rattled again
A magnitude 5 earthquake on Tuesday struck Puerto Rico, where people are still on edge from a series of quakes after last month’s deadly 6.4 temblor.
It was the 11th earthquake of at least that size in the past 30 days, according to the US Geological Survey.
The earthquake’s center was 13 miles southeast of Guanica on the southwest coast, according to the US Geological Survey.
Shelters were already emptying shortly after the quake hit at 10:45 a.m., but it left several municipal employees “requiring emotional assistance,” Guayanilla Mayor Nelson Torres Yordan told newspaper El Nuevo Dia.
The magnitude 6.4 earthquake on January 7 left one person dead, destroyed dozens of homes and structures, and left 300,000 without water and two-thirds of the island without power.
Since late December, a series of quakes — about 500 of magnitude 2 or greater — have rattled Puerto Rico, hitting infrastructure already weakened from Category 5 Hurricane Maria that struck the island in September 2017.