Another Earthquake Has Struck Puerto Rico, Damaging Museums on an Island Still Recovering From a String of Natural Catastrophes

Puerto Rico’s recent spate
of seismic activity continued this past weekend with a
5.5-magnitude earthquake that struck Saturday morning and severely
damaged the historic Museo de la Masacre de
Ponce, a memorial to the 1937 civil rights protest
that left 19 civilians and two police officers dead.

Photos of the Museo de la Masacre on Facebook show a partial
collapse of the museum’s facade and wrap-around balcony, with piles
of rubble in the street. The building had previously suffered
slight damage to the balcony roof in January, according
to El
Universal.

The island has been suffering a string of earthquakes since
December, including “six events magnitude 5.5 and larger and over a
thousand magnitude 3.0 and larger events,” according to a statement from the
US Geological Service.

The latest quake was centered on the island’s southern coast,
near Tallaboa, about 80 miles south of San Juan.

The continued seismic activity particularly stings for a
community still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Maria
in 2017, and coming amid the global health crisis.

FEMA has paused its field operations, which were launched after
the December earthquakes, until at least May 25, but “personnel
continue to work on the island to support survivors of the December
28–February 4 earthquakes and continuing aftershocks,” wrote a FEMA
representative in an email to Artnet News, noting that the agency
has been remotely reviewing and approving applications for relief
aid.

Just around the corner from the Museo de la Masacre
is Casa Paoli, a historic house
museum dedicated to Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli that was also
damaged. “Experts say that if this series of earthquakes continues,
the four main walls of the building’s interior structure may
collapse,” museum director Nestor Murray told Artnet News in an
email.

The nearby Museo de Arte de Ponce, which
was hit hard by the January quakes, was spared this time around.
“We are happy to report that there were no further damages in our
building,” wrote Alejandra Peña Gutiérrez, the museum’s director,
in an email to Artnet News.

The museum had closed indefinitely in
January following non-structural damage to its main building,
as well as three damaged sculptures. It has maintained a slate of
off-site educational programming and introduced a new social media
initiative called ConectARTE.

Its plan is to continue repairs and prepare the museum for
reopening, Gutiérrez said, but added that “we must follow the
protocols in compliance with the requirements established by the
government of Puerto Rico in the midst of the mandatory
lockdown.”

The post Another Earthquake Has Struck Puerto Rico, Damaging
Museums on an Island Still Recovering From a String of Natural
Catastrophes appeared first on artnet News.