Magnitude 6.6 quake strikes Puerto Rico amid heavy seismic activity
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Puerto Rico before dawn on Tuesday, killing one man, injuring at least eight other people and collapsing buildings.
“I’ve never been so scared in my life,” said Nelson Rivera, a 70-year-old resident who fled his home in the city of Ponce, near the epicenter of the quake. “ I didn’t think we would get out. I said: ‘We’ll be buried here.’”Teacher Rey González told the Associated Press that his uncle was killed when a wall collapsed on him at the home they shared in Ponce. He said 73-year-old Nelson Martínez was disabled and that he and his father cared for him.
A tsunami alert was issued for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after the initial quake but was later canceled.In the historic district of Ponce, authorities evacuated more than 150 people from two buildings they said were in danger of collapsing. Among them were more than two dozen elderly patients from a nursing home who sat in their wheelchairs in silence as the earth continued to tremble.The roof of the 1915 building was partially collapsed, and dust and debris lay around him.
Puerto Rico’s governor, Wanda Vasquez, ordered government offices closed for the day and urged citizens to remain calm and not check damage to their homes until daylight.
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