Tag Archives: collapsed homes

‘Traumatized’ Puerto Ricans rocked by more strong quakes

By Ricardo Ortiz

YAUCO, Puerto Rico (Reuters) – Two strong aftershocks collapsed homes and cracked walls in Puerto Rico on Friday as the Caribbean island tried to recover from its worst earthquake in more than a century.

The first quake of magnitude 5.2 struck at 6:26 p.m. (5:26 p.m. EST), followed by another of magnitude 4.8 about four hours later, both centered on the island’s southwest coast, the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) said.

The quakes were felt as far north as the capital San Juan, and a spokesman for the town of Guayanilla told the El Nuevo Dia newspaper they caused more homes and buildings to collapse in the hard-hit community.

Shaken residents in the south said the aftershocks were the strongest since Tuesday’s 6.4 magnitude earthquake, which killed at least one person, destroyed or damaged about 300 homes and knocked out power across the island.

Ada Cedeño was among more than 1,000 residents of Yauco, around 4 miles (6.4 kms) west of Guayanilla, who spent the night in a stadium, fearful their homes would collapse after hundreds of quakes and tremors in the last 13 days.

“My nerves are on edge, we’re traumatized. I have a sister who is crying, she doesn’t want to go inside her house,” said Cedeño, 69, who with five other relatives set up camp beds among a sea of tents, canopies and blue plastic tarpaulin sheets.

The U.S. territory has been battered by hundreds of earthquakes and aftershocks since Dec. 28, causing structural damage to thousands of buildings and homes.

The island is trying to restore power to its nearly 3 million residents after Tuesday’s earthquake severely damaged its largest generating plant, Costa Sur.

The island’s electricity authority reported 83 percent of customers had power by Friday evening, adding that the 5.2 tremor had not caused blackouts.

Aftershocks are expected to continue for several more days following Tuesday’s major quake, the USGS said.

Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez and U.S. Senator Rick Scott on Friday toured the Costa Sur plant in Guayanilla and spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump by telephone about recovery efforts.

They said Trump pledged his support for Puerto Rico after having approved an emergency declaration earlier in the week to mobilize resources. Scott said more than 6,000 people were in emergency shelters.

Vázquez on Thursday said she expected power to be fully restored by Monday.

The earthquakes have added to Puerto Rico’s woes as it recovers from Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017, which killed about 3,000 people, and goes through a bankruptcy process.

(Reporting by Ricardo Ortiz in Yauco, Puerto Rico, and Luis Valentin Ortiz in San Juan; Additional reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico and Marco Bello in San Juan; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Clarence Fernandez)

Death toll rises to 31 in PNG quake as weather and damage hamper relief effort

Locals surround a house that was covered by a landslide in the town of Mendi after an earthquake struck Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands, in this image taken February 27, 2018 obtained from social media. Francis Ambrose/via REUTERS

By Tom Westbrook

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The death toll from the strongest earthquake to strike Papua New Guinea’s rugged interior in almost a century has climbed to 31 and would probably rise further, officials said on Thursday, as damage to roads, runways and phone lines slowed relief efforts.

Remote hamlets closest to the epicenter of the 7.5 magnitude quake in the Southern Highlands were buried, killing 13 people, said James Justin, a research officer at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in Port Moresby in an email, citing a two-way radio call from a mission station in the region.

Most of the other confirmed fatalities were in or around the provincial capital of Mendi and the town of Tari 40 km (25 miles) from the epicenter, where aftershocks continue to be felt and people afraid their homes may yet collapse have been sleeping in their yards.

“Tari is completely shut down,” Mark Mendai, head of the district’s Development Authority told Reuters by phone.

“All the water tanks have been turned over and at the moment people are suffering a lack of fresh water, all the rivers are dirty,” he said. “The runway has some cracks, the district offices are all spoiled, all our roads within Tari are cracked, blocking traveling traffic.”

A spokesman from the country’s National Disaster Centre said a preliminary damage assessment from the quake, which struck the mountainous Southern Highlands some 560 km (350 miles) northwest of the capital, Port Moresby, was still incomplete.

Australia has promised tarpaulins, water purification tablets, and water containers, and despatched a military C-130 transport plane to assist with aerial surveillance.

Pictures showed collapsed buildings in Mendi and residents using shovels to clear away landslides.

That left those injured in villages to the west unable to reach the general hospital, where wards were largely empty except for long-term patients, Wendy Tinaik, assistant to the hospital’s director, said by phone.

Miners and oil and gas companies were also assessing damage to their infrastructure, including a 700-km (435-mile) gas pipeline that connects to a coastal liquefaction plant, but were hampered by bad weather according to Oil Search Ltd.

Quake damage shut the region’s biggest airfield at Komo, built to supply remote Exxon Mobil Corp facilities, though bush airstrips were accessible and Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) evacuated four people to Mt Hagen.

“As we flew and photographed all that we could see, we prayed for those below that had been affected,” said Connie-Lou Aebischer from MAF.

“The majority of the landslides were in what appeared to be largely uninhabited mountainous regions, or at least sporadically inhabited, which was the saving grace through this ongoing instability in the earth.”

(This version of the story has been refiled to fix typo in headline)

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney. Additional reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne)