CNN News:美属波多黎各发生6.4级地震 澳大利亚指控24人蓄意纵火
This Wednesday show starts in a U.S. island territory that's about 1,000 miles southeast of Miami, Florida. It's Puerto Rico and the message from its governor to the people living there is be calm and be prepared for aftershocks.
The southern part of the island was shaken by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday. That's powerful. It can cause a lot of damage. And it came one day after a 5.8 magnitude jolt.
These were just the latest in series of quakes that the U.S. territory has seen since late December. The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded hundreds of tremors within the past couple weeks. After Tuesday's quake, which was the biggest of them, Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced declared a state of emergency and activated the Puerto Rico National Guard.
Power was knocked out for people near the southern coast. Water service was knocked out to more than a quarter of the island's utility customers. The earthquakes also affected part of the island's topography.
Punta Ventana, a rock formation in arch on Puerto Rico's south western coast, collapsed in Monday's quake. Parts of Puerto Rico were still recovering from a different kind of natural disaster that hit more than two years ago — hurricane Maria. As a ferocious category four storm made landfall on the island in September of 2017, it ultimately affected all of Puerto Rico's residents in one way or another and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage.
There's an international fight going on against Australia's bush fires or wild fires. And they're the worst blazes the country has seen in decades. They flared up all over the continent. 24 people have died, thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed. Ecologist estimate that 500 million animals have been affected in some way. Officials say some of the fires started naturally when lightning struck drought affected forest.
But 24 people have been charged with intentionally lighting wild fires and police say dozens of them might have been caused unintentionally — like when someone throws away a lit cigarette on dry ground.
Australia's fire season typically coincides with its summer months, which it's in now, but an ongoing drought and high heat have made this one worse than usual.