Earthquakes Destroy Punta Ventana, Puerto Rican Natural Wonder: 'Our Icon Is' Gone

Photo: Getty

“Playa Ventana has collapsed,” said Guayanilla spokesman Glidden Lopez, according to theMiami Herald.“Today our icon is nothing but a memory.”

Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquezsaid no one was hurt during Monday’s quakes, while photographs posted tosocial mediashowed damaged structures around the U.S. territory. One picture showed two cars that had been completely crushed under a building.

The quakes hit just as the island was preparing forThree Kings Day, a religious holiday comparable to Christmas Day that is known for social gatherings and gift-giving.

The UPRM Meteorological Laboratorytweeteda picture of Punta Ventana after the quakes. The heartbreaking photograph showed a massive portion of the arch had been turned into rubble.

Since the tremors began last month, Puerto Rico has experienced more than a thousand quakes, most of them too small to feel.

Carlos Giusti/AP/Shutterstock

“It finally fell,” Guayanilla Mayor Nelson Torres Yordán simply said after news of the landmark’s destruction spread.

Speaking to theHerald, Guayanilla resident Denniza Colon called the collapse of the arch “sad.”

“It was one of the biggest tourism draws of Guayanilla,” she told the newspaper.

No tsunami warnings were issued after the quakes.

“This is one of the strongest quakes to date since it started shaking on December 28,” Angel Vazquez, emergency management director for the city of Ponce, told the AP of the quakes that occurred Monday morning. “It lasted a long time.”

source: people.com