

Jan 13, 2020
Originally published on January 14, 2020 11:20 am




Utility says 99% of customers have electricity


Reporting from the port city of Ponce, NPR's Adrian Florido said the Costa Sur Plant, which produces more than 40% of Puerto Rico's electricity, was badly damaged in last week's quake. It remains offline indefinitely.


"People aren't coping terribly well," Florido said on NPR's Morning Edition Monday.

Many earthquake victims sleeping outdoors


After sleeping outside for days on her patio following Tuesday's quake, she eventually came to her town's baseball stadium where she's been sleeping on one of hundreds of government-issued cots.

She's like so many others sleeping in open-air shelters, many unwilling to go back to their homes until they've been deemed safe.


Jose Jimenez / Getty Images

As NPR reported last week, Direct Relief, a humanitarian group, estimated 2,000 people were displaced by the quake. The Associated Press, citing local officials, estimates the number of people "left homeless by a series of quakes" is nearly 5,000.

Puerto Rico's Gov. Wanda Vázquez over the weekend asked earthquake victims to contact local municipal offices for immediate assistance.


The paper also reports Vázquez estimated the total losses from the earthquakes at $110 million. However, citing officials in southern municipalities, Puerto Rico's El Nuevo Día newspaper places that estimate closer to $460 million.

Puerto Rico has a history of earthquakes, just not big ones

Puerto Rico sits on the edge of where the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates converge. Boundaries like these are where most of Earth's quakes occur.

"Puerto Rico is on an active plate boundary, which means that it is a seismically active area," said Wendy Bohon, an earthquake geologist at Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology or IRIS.


Bohon tells NPR Puerto Rico's recent "earthquake sequence" is particularly damaging for several reasons.

First, the ongoing recovery from Maria can't be overstated. Beyond that she said the quakes around the island have been "shallow," meaning they are felt more by people.


A collapsed structure lies after the previous day's magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Yauco, Puerto Rico.
Carlos Giusti / AP

USGS predictions for future earthquakes

The U.S. Geological Survey defines foreshock as "an earthquake will be followed within 3 days by a large earthquake nearby." Worldwide, the probability of that occurring is just 6%, according to the USGS.

"The psychological damage of having to live through felt earthquakes for days and days and not knowing what's coming next is difficult to know how to protect your family," Bohon said.


According to its latest forecast, there are three possible scenarios for the island's "earthquake sequence" over the next month.

It gives a 21% chance for a quake as large as last week's 6.4 magnitude to occur. A more likely scenario, it said, is that "aftershocks will continue to decrease in frequency over the next 30 days" which USGS says has a 76% chance of happening.

While unlikely, the organization said, "Recent earthquakes could trigger an earthquake significantly larger" than last week's. But it puts that scenario at a slim 3%.

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