KTLA5<\/p>\n
Hours after a deadly\u00a06.4 magnitude earthquake<\/a>\u00a0rocked Puerto Rico, people on the southern coast fear more homes could soon collapse and most of the people on the island remain without power.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s quake \u2014 the strongest and likely the most damaging of a series of quakes that have hit the island since December 28 \u2014 left a man dead, caused dozens of homes and structures to crumble and cut power and water service to swaths of the island.<\/p>\n Gov. Wanda V\u00e1zquez Garced declared a state of emergency and activated the Puerto Rico National Guard as she pleaded with people to remain calm and prepare for aftershocks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have responded to many difficult situations, and here we are once again \u2026 helping our people move forward,\u201d V\u00e1zquez said.<\/p>\n Engineers were working to reestablish service to close to 300,000 of the island\u2019s 1.1 million utility customers who were without water service Tuesday, V\u00e1zquez said.<\/p>\n The 6.4 quake struck at 4:24 a.m. (3:24 a.m. ET) while most were still asleep. It centered just off Puerto Rico\u2019s southern coast, about 6 miles south Indios, a town of a couple thousand people, the\u00a0US Geological Survey said<\/a>. Several aftershocks have followed, including a magnitude 5.6 temblor striking just south of Indios at 7:18 a.m.,\u00a0USGS said<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the town of Guanica, families sat on white plastic chairs and cots in the parking lot of the Mariano \u201cTito\u201d Rodriguez Municipal Coliseum. About 255 have been taking shelter there since a\u00a05.8 magnitude quake shook the US territory<\/a>\u00a0on Monday but officials now fear the building it\u2019s not stable.<\/p>\n \u201cMy home is like a hammock,\u201d said Hector Cruz, a resident of Guanica. \u201cIt\u2019s like a drill coming from underneath the home.\u201d<\/p>\n The earthquakes come more than two years after\u00a0Hurricane Maria<\/a>\u00a0devastated the US territory in September 2017 and many in southern Puerto Rico said the earthquakes damage had been worst.<\/p>\n Puerto Rico Police Commissioner Henry Escalera told CNN there\u2019s not way to compare both disasters.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no warnings for this,\u201d he said about the earthquakes. \u201cA hurricane gives us time to plan ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about what concerns him the most about the aftermath of the earthquakes, Escalera said, \u201cIt\u2019s our homes\u2026 that homes will not be safe to live in and the possibility of a collapse that will cause a person\u2019s death or serious injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n In the city of Ponce, roughly 15-mile drive east of Indios, a 77-year-old man was killed and at least eight others were injured Tuesday, Ponce emergency management director Angel Vasquez said.<\/p>\n More than 400,000 of Puerto Rico\u2019s 3.1 million people would have felt strong or very strong shaking, the USGS estimates, though the entire island would have felt lesser effects.<\/p>\n Zulma Bracero, deputy mayor of Guanica, told CNN that authorities were providing tents to help residents sleep outdoors on Tuesday night. She said nothing seems safe and the situation is worse than the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.<\/p>\n Riko Gonzalez and his parents were sleeping in their home in Yauco, near Indios, when the 6.4 quake struck. They awoke to a rumble and scurried out of the house. China and glasses were smashed on the kitchen floor, he said.<\/p>\n It was \u201chorrible, nothing compared to the (magnitude) 5s from yesterday,\u201d Gonzalez told CNN.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are afraid to go to bed, to then be woken up to worse earthquakes than the day before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In Guayanilla, just north of Indios, parts of the Inmaculada Conception church were in ruins Tuesday. Part of an exterior wall collapsed, and piles of rubble lay on the ground, pictures posted to Facebook showed.<\/p>\n Homes also were damaged in Guayanilla, Mayor Nelson Torres said in a phone interview with\u00a0CNN affiliate WAPA<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Guayanilla area already was counting its losses from a day earlier. A significant tourist attraction, the picturesque\u00a0Punta Ventana rock formation and arch<\/a>\u00a0on the coast, collapsed because of Monday\u2019s shaking, the mayor said.<\/p>\n In Ponce, workers at Damas hospital were evacuating all patients Tuesday morning except for those in intensive care, the facility\u2019s Executive Director Dr. Pedro Benitez told WAPA.<\/p>\n \u201c(Patients) were running around the hallways, so we had to get them out of the building for their own safety,\u201d Benitez said.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s quake continues a series of seismic events that have shaken Puerto Rico across 11 days. Hundreds of small earthquakes have hit the island since December 28, the USGS says, including at least 29 over magnitude 4.0.<\/p>\n1 dead, homes and church collapsed<\/h3>\n
It could be the worst quake in more than 100 years<\/h3>\n