Earthquake....possible tsunami in the near future???

I am considering moving to Puerto Rico. I just heard about the earth quake last week. I also saw on TV that Puerto Rico is due for a tsunami... Scary... Where would be safest to live to prevent death if this natural disaster were to happen???

I would say nowhere..
I read about the Tsunami aswell

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I just wanted to tell you about something my brother called me about this
morning concerning Puerto Rico. His wife works at a hospital and he called
me freaked out about the hundreds of body bags that were recently brought
to her hospital as well as thousands to other hospitals around the island.
This coupled with thousand of FEMA Black Coffins being delivered to
 Mercedita Airport and dozens of Military Vehicles to the port. Not a
rumor, first hand witness account from my own family. FEMA, in a statement
by their representative in the Caribbean said that it was unfounded rumors
and misinformation, but my own sister in law confirms that the rumors are
true. There is also a threat of an upcoming tsunami and earthquake to the
Caribbean and the east coast of the US being discussed even in the news
media in PR. How is it even possible to call a tsunami like that before it
happens? Have you head anything about it? Have you heard of the coffins
on the island? I know about the ones here on the main land and those are
freaky enough"

There will be a tsunami in PR at some time. Nobody knows for sure when or how big it will be. Just like there will be more earthquakes. It's the nature of where the island sits. It's always been that way and will always continue to be that way. I lived on the western side of the island and they have "Tsunami Zone" signs placed all over. I expect the same goes for the rest of the island. A tsunami will only go so far inland. But an earthquake can effect you anywhere on the entire island. Years ago the entire city of Mayaguez was devastated by a tsunami. Just like hurricanes, they are inevitable. It's just one of those things you have to be aware of if you live anywhere in the Caribbean. I've experienced earthquakes in PR. While they didn't cause widespread destruction they can scare the hell out of you. Especially when your 2,000 square foot cement house starts swaying back and forth and you can't open the door to get out. My biggest fear was having a chunk of the cement ceiling fall on my head. If you live there, it's a fact of life that you will have to deal with. Just like if you lived in Maine, sometimes you have to deal with some very dangerous and deadly severe winter storms. I lived in Moca and we had a small tornado touch down near the house. Nobody could remember a time when that ever happened before. So you never know. I lived in Virginia awhile back. Seems like a pretty benign place to live. Well, during the summer it got so hot and humid that several nights a week we had tornado warnings all summer long. There are natural disaster dangers wherever you go..So the Sahara winds will come and go every year, hurricane season will be watched closely, an earthquake will happen once in awhile and that's just the way it is.

Ivette0330 wrote:

I am considering moving to Puerto Rico. I just heard about the earth quake last week. I also saw on TV that Puerto Rico is due for a tsunami... Scary... Where would be safest to live to prevent death if this natural disaster were to happen???


Hello Ivette,

1). There is talk of a very big one coming from the Canary Islands where there is an unpredictable volcano.  It may erupt and dislodge a huge chunk of earth undersea which, upon falling at the bottom of the undersea volcano, will create a 1,000m tsunami which is expected to travel at 600km/hour and circumnavigate the world twice with immense disaster effects.
It was news some years ago on Discovery channel.

There are two ways to deal with the issue:
- let it happen and deal with whatever consequences.
- alert people to move uphill and create the undersea landslide with some detonation to make the disaster happen when everybody is safe.

2). The entire Caribbean is on bearings.
In St. Lucia we have land tremors every other week and one which makes you jolt out of bed once in 1-2 years.
When some volcano erupts (like in Montserrat) risks of tsunami increase. Luckily Montserrat eruption did not produce anything major as far as tsunami is concerned.
Compounding the problem is that 99% of houses in small islands have burglar bars and when an earthquake happens islanders may not have enough time to unlock the padlocks and rush out.  Not to say that to rush out and see a tsunami approaching is not a sight to behold.

3). Every Caribbean island nation has some alarm system for hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunami.  However, a tsunami system in Atlantic does not exist, like the one in the Pacific.
In St. Lucia, we had a terrible storm on Christmas eve with 10-14 deaths when people have not been warned because of alarm not working.  Our local alarm depended on the one from Martinique which was out of order for 1-2 weeks.

4). As you see from other posters, PR has tsunami warning signs which should tell you that such calamities did and do happen.
Buy property or rent higher up on the hills, and to know more history and learn about tsunamis invite one of the alarm system officers for a coffee.
Natural disasters used to worry me before I moved here in 1991.  Now I somehow became immune to worrying.