SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — President Trump has approved an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico following several earthquakes since December 28, 2019. 

A 5.8-magnitude quake hit Puerto Rico before dawn on Monday, unleashing small landslides, causing power outages, and severely cracking some homes.

However, the strongest quake hit Tuesday as a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that rattled the U.S. territory, which the island is still feeling aftershocks from. 

A map from the U.S. Geological Survey shows the seismic activity that is still rocking the area. The more than two dozen aftershocks range from 2.5 to 5.8.

Tuesday's 6.4 quake was one of the strongest to hit the island in more than 100 years. A 7.3 earthquake struck Puerto Rico in 1918 that left 116 people killed, according to the Puerto Rico Seismic Network.

However, Tuesday's quake resulted in nearly 300,000 people left without water. Power outages are happening across the southern part of the island.

The emergency declaration will free up federal assistance funding to help the island recover. 

In Florida on Wednesday morning, JetBlue has canceled all flights into Ponce.

Spectrum News anchor and reporter Ybeth Bruzual is heading to the Island right now.

 

Meantime, Florida's U.S. senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott are calling for the Trump administration to help the island.

They are requesting a disaster declaration, which would provide federal resources to help the recovery process.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is also monitoring new developments.

"FEMA has already sent 2,500 people to the area ready for assistance. I think that is the focal point. They have a lot of corporate knowledge of that. We'll be ready if they ask us to do anything but I don't anticipate that because they’ve been through this so many times," he said.

DeSantis says he is still in the "wait and see" mode as crews assess the damage.

Help from Nonprofits

Latino Leadership is preparing for possible Puerto Ricans arrivals who seek shelter in Central Florida because of the earthquakes. The nonprofit said it began to reach out to families to adopt or host evacuees and hopes other Floridians volunteer.

"It’s something we think is going to be temporary," said Marytza Sanz, Latino Leadership CEO and President.

The nonprofit also began to collect cots and tents to house families on the island who lost their homes.

Here are the drop off locations:

Jesus de Nazaret Episcopal Church in Orlando and 80 other Episcopal churches are also raising money for Puerto Rico.