{"id":19043,"date":"2020-01-09T12:28:10","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T17:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/?p=19043"},"modified":"2020-01-09T12:28:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T17:28:11","slug":"puerto-rico-earthquakes-severely-damage-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/puerto-rico-earthquakes-severely-damage-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rico earthquakes severely damage churches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>

An earthquake severely damaged this shop in Gu\u00e1nica, Puerto Rico, on Jan. 7, 2020. Photo: Ricardo Ortiz\/Reuters <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

[Episcopal News Service] Several churches in the Diocese of Puerto Rico have suffered severe damage from the series of earthquakes that have struck the island<\/a> in recent days, killing at least one person and injuring at least eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of minor earthquakes have hit Puerto Rico\u2019s southwest coast since Dec. 28, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but a 5.8-magnitude quake on Jan. 6 and a 6.4-magnitude one on Jan. 7 destroyed buildings and shut down the island\u2019s power grid, leading to a state of emergency declaration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of the diocese\u2019s churches \u2013 Santa Cecilia in Gu\u00e1nica and San Juan Ap\u00f3stol in Yauco \u2013 appear to be in danger of collapsing, according to the Very Rev. Mario Rodr\u00edguez, dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in San Juan and the diocese\u2019s canon to the ordinary. Santo Nombre in Ponce and the Quinta Tranquila retreat center in Yauco also suffered major structural damage, Rodr\u00edguez told Episcopal News Service. Other church buildings had minor damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been monitoring the situation closely and tomorrow (Wednesday) a team from the Diocesan Center, including a structural engineer, will go to the affected areas to carry out a formal damage assessment and to coordinate relief efforts,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said by email. \u201cToday, local teams began to distribute water and meals in affected areas. These efforts will be reinforced tomorrow by the team from the Diocesan Center.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puerto Rico has endured a string of crises in recent years, from the devastation of Hurricane Maria<\/a> in 2017 to a massive political scandal<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday our Puerto Rico faces again the challenge of keeping calm and moving forward with faith and hope,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez posted<\/a> on the cathedral\u2019s Facebook page. \u201cCertainly, we are not newbies in this, but yes, vulnerable sons and daughters of God. We face with faith this expression of our nature and trust in the God who loves us and who we call father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIRST POSTED ON EPISCOPAL NEWS SERVICE BY \u2013 Egan Millard is an assistant editor and reporter for the Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at emillard@episcopalchurch.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Episcopal News Service] Several churches in the Diocese of Puerto Rico have suffered severe damage from the series of earthquakes that have struck the island in recent days, killing at least one person and injuring at least eight. Hundreds of minor earthquakes have hit Puerto Rico\u2019s southwest coast since Dec. 28, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":19044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglican-communion-updates","category-news","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19045,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19043\/revisions\/19045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}