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Earthquake strikes Puerto Rico, damaging homes
A 5.8-magnitude quake hit Puerto Rico before dawn Monday, unleashing small landslides, causing power outages and severely cracking some homes. It was one of the strongest quakes yet to hit the U.S. territory that has been shaking for the past week.
ORLANDO, Fla. - People in the southern part of Puerto Rico woke up to many homes damaged during a 5.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked the island Monday morning.
“Over there, in the south, the damage is were very, very powerful,” Richard Colon, of San Juan, said. “There’s a lot of damage.”
Colon lives in San Juan, on the northern portion of the island.
FOX 35 News video chatted with him.
He didn’t feel the earthquake, but got calls from his loved ones about it.
“They were all telling me, ‘There was a really strong earthquake,’” Colon said. “'Did you feel it? Are you OK?’ Everyone was really worried when I woke up.”
There have been no reports of injuries since the earthquake.
“The immediate reaction is a gasp and sort of the acceleration of the heart,” Alianza For Progress Executive Director Marcos Vilar said.
FOX 35 News also spoke to Alianza For Progress, a Puerto Rican advocate organization, in Central Florida about the earthquake.
“Immediately, when there is something going on in Puerto Rico that’s of crisis, obviously all these Puerto Ricans that live throughout the United States are going to be feeling it and feeling the empathy and doing whatever they can,” Vilar said.
The group will work with other organizations to provide assistance to those who need it.
“They’re nervous,” Pete Cora, with Alianza For Progress, said. “Especially after Hurricane Maria and seeing the response of FEMA and seeing the response of the government.”
On the island, Colon, who lived through Hurricane Maria, said he is devastated to see another natural disaster on the island.
“You feel helpless,” Colon said. “Especially in an earthquake where you don’t really know that it was going to happen and you see in minutes these houses were destroyed.”