Resumen de Address-Level effects in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, from the 1918 Mw 7.3 earthquake and tsunami

Roland LaForge, William R. McCann

• The 11 October 1918 Mw 7.3 earthquake and tsunami that occurred about 20 km northwest of Puerto Rico is the most recent damaging seismic event to affect the island. As part of the relief effort, residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed filled out petitions that described the damage, and they were granted funds to repair or rebuild their residences based on these petitions. The records from this program were recently discovered in the General Archive in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After having apparently lain untouched for almost 100 years, they were scanned and preserved in digital format.

  Petitions from the town of Aguadilla, which was closest to the epicenter, were analyzed to show a detailed address-level picture of which sections of the town were affected by ground shaking and tsunami damage, and to what extent.