Strong 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Puerto Rico cracks walls, downs power lines

YAUCO, Puerto Rico - A 5.2 magnitude earthquake cracked walls and brought down power lines in Puerto Rico on Friday as the Caribbean island was recovering from its worst quake in over a century on Tuesday.

The latest quake took place at 6:26 p.m. (5:26 p.m. EST), with its epicenter around 4 kilometers south of Indios on the southern coast, the US Geological Survey reported.

The quake was felt in the capital San Juan and to the west authorities closed a road bridge near Caguas that was in danger of collapsing after cracks appeared.

Shaken residents in the south said it was the strongest they had felt 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.

"Please no more," tweeted Nick Silva, showing a crack in his wall.

The island is in the process of restoring power to its nearly 3 million residents after Tuesday's earthquake severely damaged its largest generating plant, Costa Sur.

The lights stayed on in San Juan after Friday's quake, residents said, but there were reports on Twitter of new blackouts in the west of the island.

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

They said Trump pledged his support for Puerto Rico after he earlier in the week approved an emergency declaration to mobilize resources for recovery efforts.

"I will work my tail off to make sure all the federal resources that can be available will be available," Scott told reporters.

In the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake, only half of the Caribbean island had power. Scott said over 6,000 people were in emergency shelters, many of them fearful their own homes could collapse during another major earthquake.

Vázquez on Thursday said that, without another major earthquake, she expected power to be fully restored across the island by Monday.

Authorities have promised that the earthquake blackouts will not be a repeat of the lengthy power outages the island suffered following back-to-back hurricanes in 2017.

The earthquake has added to Puerto Rico's woes as it is still recovering from Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017 which killed around 3,000 people, and goes through a bankruptcy process.

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Hurricane Maria hammers Puerto Rico, causes wide destruction

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Hurricane Maria rampaged across Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the strongest storm to hit the U.S. territory in nearly 90 years, causing major flooding, damaging homes and knocking out power to the whole island after killing at least nine people in the Caribbean.


Maria, the second major hurricane to roar through the Caribbean this month, was carrying winds of up to 155 miles per hour (250 kph), when it made landfall near Yabucoa, on the southeast of the island of 3.4 million people.

It ripped the roofs off buildings and turned low-lying streets into rushing rivers of debris knocked down by winds.

Its winds downed trees and damaged homes and buildings, including several hospitals, local media reported. News pictures showed whole blocks flooded in the Hato Rey neighborhood of the capital, San Juan.

Streets in San Juan's old town were left strewn with debris, from broken balconies and downed power lines to air conditioning units, shattered lamp posts, uprooted trees and dead birds.

"When we are able to go outside, we are going to find our island destroyed," Abner Gomez, the director of the island's emergency management agency, known by its Spanish language acronym AEMEAD, was quoted as saying by El Nuevo Dia newspaper. "It's a system that has destroyed everything in its path."

Maria was producing widespread and dangerous flooding across the island, the National Weather Service said

Electricity was believed to be out across the island, said Pedro Cerame, a spokesman for Governor Ricardo Rossello.

Authorities had not yet been able to assess the extent of the damage, he said.

Thousands of people had sought safety in shelters.

"God is with us; we are stronger than any hurricane," Rossello said on Twitter. "Together we will rise again."

By 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT), Maria's center was heading away and it was located just north of the island, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. As expected when hurricanes move over hilly or mountainous ground, it had lost strength. But with top winds of 115 mph (185 kph), it was still a Category 3 on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, a major hurricane.

It was forecast to maintain strength as it passed the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic later on Wednesday.

At one point a rare Category 5 storm, Maria killed at least seven people on the island of Dominica, government officials said, and two people in the French territory of Guadeloupe as it barreled through the Caribbean. It also caused widespread damage on St. Croix, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Hurricane Irma, which ranked as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, also left a trail of destruction in several Caribbean islands and Florida this month, killing at least 84 people in the Caribbean and the U.S. mainland.

FRAGILE HOMES

Maria was expected to dump as much as 25 inches (66 cm) of rain on parts of Puerto Rico, the NHC said. Storm surges, when hurricanes push ocean water dangerously over normal levels, could be up to 9 feet (2.7 meters.)

Many homes and businesses across Puerto Rico have wooden or tin roofs, cheaper building materials that also keep homes cooler in the balmy Caribbean climate, but no match for storms of the intensity of Maria.

"This might be a new, permanent part of our lives," said Ramon Claudio Ortiz, 71, a retired lawyer. "We're going to have to revisit our building codes."

The Weather Undergound website said Maria, classified as a Category 4 hurricane when it landed, was the second strongest hurricane ever recorded to hit Puerto Rico, behind only the 1928 San Felipe Segundo hurricane, which killed more than 300 people.

Maria brought its destruction at a time when Puerto Rico is struggling financially, grappling with the largest municipal debt crisis in U.S. history, with both its government and the public utility having filed for bankruptcy protection amid disputes with creditors.

Even though Irma grazed north of Puerto Rico and did not hit the island directly, it knocked out power for 70 percent of the island, and killed at least three people.

DOMINICA 'IN A DAZE'

Before hitting Puerto Rico, Maria ripped off roofs and downed trees as it passed west of St. Croix, home to about half of the U.S. Virgin Islands' 103,000 residents.

Some 65 to 70 percent of the buildings on St. Croix were damaged by the storm, said Holland Redfield, who served six terms in the U.S. Virgin Islands senate.

"There were a lot of homes that had lost their roofs. It was a sad sight," Redfield said in a phone interview, describing viewing the island. "I'm in a very densely populated area now and I see a tremendous amount of confusion. A lot of trees are down."

In Guadeloupe, at least two people were killed, according to France's minister for overseas territories. Many roads were blocked and 40 percent of the population was without power, the overseas territories ministry said in a statement.

The island of Dominica, with a population of about 73,000, was devastated by Maria earlier in the week. Hartley Henry, principal adviser to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that "the country is in a daze."

Maria was expected to move near the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas on Thursday night and Friday, the NHC said. So far, it looked unlikely to threaten the continental United States.

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6.3 million told to leave Florida as Irma closes in

FORT MYERS, Florida - Hurricane Irma turned its menacing sight toward the Florida Keys on Saturday as it completed a destructive march along Cuba's northern coast and set off an 11th hour scramble for safety by Americans who may have ignored warnings to evacuate.

Irma, one of the fiercest Atlantic storms in a century, was expected to rip through Florida's southern archipelago on Sunday morning. It will make landfall on the Florida peninsula somewhere west of Miami and then head up the state's west coast, by Tampa, forecasters said.

Irma, which has killed at least 22 people in the Caribbean, was likely to inflict billions of dollars in damage in the third largest US state by population.

On Florida's west coast, Charley Ball said he expected a storm surge to engulf the entire island of Sanibel, an affluent community where he lives and operates a painting company.

"Just left the island and said goodbye to everything I own," the 62-year-old Ball said.

The storm could bring winds in excess of 130 mph (209 kph) and a storm surge up to 15 feet (4.6 meters), which is expected to trigger flooding.

Irma, located about 115 miles (185 km) southeast of Key West on Saturday afternoon, was a Category 5 storm, the highest ranking possible, when it crashed into Cuba during the morning. It gradually weakened to a Category 3 storm as it bumped along the island's northern coastline, flooding streets and sending waves crashing over sea walls.

Maximum sustained winds stayed at around 125 mph (201 kph), the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Irma is expected to regain strength as it steams over warm waters south of Florida, according to the NHC. It was likely to regain Category 4 status before striking Florida, said NHC spokesman Dennis Feltgen.

The wide reach of Irma's deadly winds and its size, more than its numerical ranking, has rattled veteran hurricane watchers. It could rival any storm in Florida's history, Governor Rick Scott said.

Irma will dump 10 inches to 20 inches (25 cm to 51 cm) of rain over Florida and southeast Georgia from Saturday through Monday, the National Weather Service said, a fraction of what Hurricane Harvey dropped on Texas and Louisiana last month.

But unlike with Harvey, dangerous winds will barely abate once Irma makes landfall on Sunday morning.

A long line of people in Estero, Florida lined up to enter an arena that officials converted into an evacuation shelter, one of hundreds that have opened up across the state.

Andrea Prather, a singer from the Gulf Coast city of Fort Myers, said she was confident that she would stay safe on the 25th floor of her high-rise building.

She closely followed reports about the storm's path as it headed toward her town.

"When it made that turn, that's when I had that anxiety pit in my stomach. I was like, 'OK this is not good,'" she said.

In Cuba, the destruction along the north central coast was similar to that seen on other Caribbean islands over the last week as Irma plowed into Ciego de Avila province.

In the storm's aftermath, people walked through ankle-deep water in Caibarien, a Cuban fishing town where streets were flooded and covered in seaweed. Elsewhere, winds toppled trees and utility polls or ripped apart roofs.

"It was powerful, water rose to about one meter high," said Risle Echemendia, 28, in Caibarien as he swept muddy water out of his front door. "This was the strongest storm Caibarien ever had. It will take a while to recover from this, at least a few years."

It was the first time the eye of a Category 5 storm had made landfall in Cuba since 1932, state media said, and the island's Communist government ordered the evacuation of more than 1 million people, with most sheltering with family and friends.

THIRD OF FLORIDA

Officials in Florida have ordered a total of 6.3 million people, or about a third of the state's population, to evacuate, creating massive traffic jams on highways and bringing huge crowds to shelters.

In Palm Beach, President Donald Trump's waterfront Mar-a-Lago estate was under evacuation order. Trump and his cabinet were at Camp David in Maryland, receiving updates on the storm.

Irma was already whipping south Florida with winds on Saturday, and the governor said thousands of people were without power.

About 9 million people in Florida may lose power, some for weeks, said Florida Power & Light Co, which serves almost half of the state's 20.6 million residents.

The window for people in evacuation zones to flee was drawing to a close on Saturday, officials said, warning that gas stations would soon be without fuel and bridges would be closed in some areas.

"You can't play chicken with this thing or try to outrun the storm," US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said at a news conference.

Rubio acknowledged some people had fled their homes only to arrive in areas expected to be in the storm's path, but he advised people in that situation to hunker down.

That was the case for Chris Cardona, 54, and his wife Laurie, who left their mobile home near Miami on Thursday to seek refuge with friends near Tampa.

"Not only did we go west, but so did Irma. She's tracking us, that feisty minx," Cardona said by phone.

Hurricane Irma could cause insurance losses of between $15 billion and $50 billion in the United States, catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide said.

Irma was set to hit the United States two weeks after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas as a Category 4 storm, killing about 60 people and causing property damage estimated at up to $180 billion in Texas and Louisiana.

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Hurricane Irma leaves 11 dead as it tears through Caribbean

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — Hurricane Irma plowed past the Dominican Republic on Thursday after devastating a string of Caribbean islands and killing at least 11 people as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century took aim at Florida.

With winds of around 290 kph, the storm lashed several small islands in the northeast Caribbean, including Barbuda, St. Martin and the British Virgin Islands, tearing down trees, flattening homes and causing widespread damage.

The eye of the hurricane passed north of Puerto Rico early Thursday, battering the US territory with high winds and heavy rains and leaving nearly 70% of the population without electricity, Governor Ricardo Rossello said.

The eye of Irma was moving west-northwest off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic on Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Irma's precise course remained uncertain but it was likely to be downgraded to a Category-4 storm by the time it makes landfall in Florida, according to the NHC.

Irma has become a little less organized over the past few hours but the threat of a direct hurricane impact in Florida over the weekend and early next week was increasing, the NHC said.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic ordered the evacuation of towns along the northern Atlantic coast, as the storm ground toward the port and tourist destination of Puerto Plata.

"There is a lot of wind and rain," Puerto Plata Assistant District Attorney Juan Carlos Castro Hernandez told Reuters by telephone. "We expect things to get worse."

At least 8 people were killed in the tiny French-Dutch island of Saint Martin, with 23 others injured, and the toll was likely to rise as emergency services reached isolated communities, officials said.

"ENORMOUS DISASTER"

"It is an enormous disaster. Ninety-five percent of the island is destroyed. I am in shock," Daniel Gibbs, chairman of a local council on Saint Martin, told Radio Caribbean International.

Television footage from the island showed a damaged marina with boats tossed into piles, submerged streets and flooded homes. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday to coordinate an emergency humanitarian response.

Amid criticism from many residents that the British government could have done more to help its territories, Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan said a Royal Navy ship would reach the affected islands on Thursday with tents, vehicles and other relief equipment.

"Anguilla received the hurricane's full blast. The initial assessment is that the damage has been severe and in places critical," he told parliament.

One person was killed on the island and roads were blocked, with damage to the hospital and airport, power and phone service, Anguilla emergency service officials said.

In Puerto Rico, Rossello was due to fly to the worst effected areas of the island on Thursday but said it was to early to estimate the cost of the damage. The streets of the capital San Juan were littered with downed tree limbs and signs, with many street lights out.

Juan Pablo Aleman, a restaurant owner, said he had ridden out the storm in his 11th-floor apartment.

"The building moved, shook a few times. A lot of shingles came off and some windows broke," he told Reuters. "If it had gone a little more to the south, it would have been catastrophic."

Irma was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean and one of the five most forceful storms to hit the Atlantic basin in 82 years, according to the NHC.

The hurricane was on track to reach Florida on Saturday or Sunday, and would become the second major hurricane to hit the US mainland in as many weeks after Hurricane Harvey.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said it was unclear whether Irma would hit the state's east or west coast but told residents to beware of the surge from the powerful winds.

"The storm surge can kill you," Scott said on the "CBS This Morning" program on Thursday. He urged people to heed local officials and be ready when the call came to leave their area, promising the government would provide transportation to those who need it.

"YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN"

Florida emergency management officials began evacuations in advance of Irma's arrival, ordering tourists to leave the Florida Keys.

Roman Gastesi, the administrator of Monroe County, which encompasses the Florida Keys, told CNN that streets were empty in Key West and 90 percent of businesses were closed. County officials, including police and emergency workers, would be leaving, he said.

"If you're going to stay, you're on your own," Gastesi said.

US President Donald Trump was monitoring Irma's progress. The president owns the waterfront Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump approved emergency declarations for the state, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, mobilizing federal disaster relief efforts.

The island of Barbuda, one of the first hit by the storm, was a scene of "total carnage," said Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, adding that the tiny two-island nation will seek international assistance.

Browne told the BBC that about half of Barbuda's population of some 1,800 were homeless while nine out of 10 buildings had suffered some damage and many were destroyed.

"We flew into Barbuda only to see total carnage. It was easily one of the most emotionally painful experiences that I have had," Browne said in an interview on BBC Radio Four, adding that it would take months or years to restore some level of normalcy to the island.

Browne said one person was killed on Barbuda. A surfer was also reported killed on Barbados.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for the Bahamas and the British overseas territory of the Turks and Caicos, the NHC said.

In Cuba, 145 kilometers south of the Florida Keys, a hurricane alert was issued for the central and eastern regions, as residents in Havana waited in lines to stock up on food, water and gasoline.

Two other hurricanes formed on Wednesday.

Katia in the Gulf of Mexico posed no threat to the United States, according to US forecasters. Hurricane Jose was about 1,310 kilometers east of the Caribbean's Lesser Antilles islands, and could eventually threaten the U.S. mainland.

The storm activity comes after Harvey claimed about 60 lives and caused property damage estimated to be as much as $180 billion in Texas and Louisiana.

(Reporting by Jorge Pinedo in Santo Domingo, Makini Brice in Port au Prince, Susan Heavey and Ian Simpson in Washington, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Estelle Shirbon in London, Matthias Blamont and Jean-Baptiste Vey in Paris, Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Super hurricane Irma thrashes Caribbean island; Florida braces for landfall

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Monster Hurricane Irma hammered the Caribbean island of St. Martin on Wednesday as it packed a potentially catastrophic mix of pounding winds and rain and surging surf that was expected to make landfall in Florida over the weekend.

Irma could become the second powerful storm to thrash the U.S. mainland in as many weeks, but its precise trajectory remained uncertain. Hurricane Harvey killed more than 60 people and caused as much as $180 billion in damage after hitting Texas late last month.

The eye of Irma, a Category 5 storm with winds of 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour), was bearing down on the Virgin Islands after passing over the half-French, half-Dutch island of St. Martin, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said. Category 5 is its highest category.

Its trajectory indicated Irma, which the NHC said was the strongest Atlantic storm on record, would skirt most of the Caribbean as it moves west-northwest.

Karel van Oosterom, the Netherlands ambassador to the United Nations, said Irma hit the Dutch islands of Saba and Sint Eustasius before overrunning St. Martin.

"First information indicates that a lot of damage has been done, but communication is still extremely difficult," he said at a U.N. meeting.

Irma began lashing Puerto Rico with rain at mid-morning. Governor Ricardo Rossello told residents to stay inside as the storm bore down on the island. “There is no reason to be in the street,” Rossello told a midday press conference.

Many businesses in San Juan, the island's capital, were closed and many buildings were covered with storm shutters. Occasional shoppers were out making final purchases of water, ice and food to prepare for what could be several days without power.

ROOFS BLOWN OFF

After Irma battered the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, emergency officials reported three injuries and minimal damage, with some roofs blown off. Prime Minister Gaston Browne said flights would resume from the airport Wednesday afternoon.

Much of the Leeward Islands were under a hurricane watch, as well as the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas, the NHC said.

In Paris, the French government said it had delivered water and food to two overseas territories, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, and that emergency response teams would be sent once the storm had passed.

Power was knocked out on both islands, according to prefecture officials on Guadeloupe. At least four buildings were damaged and low-lying regions had been flooded, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.

The U.N. World Food Program prepared to provide emergency aid to Haiti if it was hit by Irma. The country was ravaged by a 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew last year.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he and aides were monitoring Irma's progress. "But it looks like it could be something that will be not good. Believe me, not good," he told reporters in the White House.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said Irma could be more devastating than Hurricane Andrew, which struck the state in 1992, especially with a storm surge that could reach 10 feet (3 m).

Residents of the Florida Keys, a resort archipelago at the state's southern tip, were ordered to leave by Wednesday evening. Residents of low-lying areas in densely populated Miami-Dade County were urged to move to higher ground.

"We can expect additional evacuations as this storm continues to come near our state," Scott said at a news conference in the Keys.

He said 7,000 National Guard troops would report for duty on Friday, ahead of the storm's expected arrival.

Irma ranked as one of the five most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in the last 80 years and the strongest Atlantic storm recorded by the NHC outside the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

Trump approved emergency declarations for Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, mobilizing federal disaster relief efforts.

With Irma's looming arrival, the Miami Dolphins' home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, scheduled for Sunday, was postponed until Nov. 19, the National Football League said.

(Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Jeff Mason, Ian Simpson and Susan Heavey in Washington, Tom Miles in Geneva and Richard Lough in Paris; Writing by Ian Simpson; Editing by Catherine Evans and Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Post-presidency, Obama tries kiteboarding, watersports

Photo by Jack Brockway

Barack Obama has been enjoying life after the US presidency by trying out watersports on a luxury Caribbean island owned by Richard Branson, the Virgin chief said on Tuesday.

The former US leader and his wife Michelle Obama visited Moskito Island, in the British Virgin Islands, after handing over the presidency to his successor Donald Trump.

Photos published on Branson's blog show Obama smiling on board a speed boat and wearing a helmet and goggles as he tries out kitesurfing.

"Being the former president of America, there was lots of security around, but Barack was able to really relax and get into it," the British billionaire wrote.

Obama had been stopped by his security detail from doing watersports during his presidency, Branson said.

Two days were dedicated to teaching Obama how to kitesurf from the beach, "as if going back to being a child again" according to his host.

Branson bought Moskito Island in 2007 and has since built a luxury estate which can host 22 guests, according to the resort's website.

Immediately after leaving the White House on January 20, the Obamas flew to California for a short holiday in Palm Springs.

In his final press conference as president, Obama said he was looking forward to spending time with his family after leaving office.

"I want to do some writing, I want to be quiet a little bit and not hear myself talk so darn much. I want to spend precious time with my girls," he said.

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