Since December 28 we have been experiencing earthquakes in Puerto Rico. They have mostly been located in the southeast of the island. Not everyone has felt them, including me and my mother. But I woke up this morning at 4:20 to a 6.4 earthquake, the strongest one yet. This earthquake was so strong it left the whole island without power and we don’t know when it will be back; first I heard two days, then I heard tomorrow.
Apart from the fear we all fear when the ground beneath us starts shaking, some houses and other buildings have not been able to handle the shaking and faced some serious damage due to not being built up to code. There have also been mountain slides and rocks have collapsed. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. We always had the earthquake drills in school where we had to practice docking under our desks at school but it never happened for real. I have never felt something like I felt this morning, only heard of small shakes but I never noticed them.
I’m still scared, especially since I’ve felt a few of the replicas since the first one this morning . They have not been as strong as the 6.4 or last as long but they still startled me and everyone around me. The scariest part is that you don’t know when, where or how strong the next one will be but we can’t let that keep us from doing anything. Even though I keep feeling the ground is shaking, even when it’s not, that didn’t stop me from going on a long walk with my cousin this afternoon. Nothing moved and it helped me take my mind off the earthquakes.
I haven’t felt anything else since this morning and I hope it ends soon.
Unstoppable María 