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Mexico CityMagnitude 7.2 earthquake slams south and central Mexico
Magnitude 7.2 earthquake slams Mexico's Oaxaca state
People in Mexico City hold onto one another as the ground shakes during an earthquake. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
A
powerful, magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck south and central Mexico on
Friday afternoon, damaging buildings and sending panicked residents
fleeing into the streets.
There
were no immediate reports of deaths, but officials said some homes and
businesses near the quake's epicenter in Oaxaca state had been damaged.
The
U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake originated about 225 miles
south of Mexico City, near the town of Pinotepa in Oaxaca state. A
magnitude 5.9 aftershock also centered in Oaxaca struck about an hour
later.
Local
media reports out of Oaxaca showed a partially collapsed hotel and
other buildings with partially collapsed roofs or walls split open by
deep fissures. The Oaxaca state government said via Twitter the worst
damage was in the towns of Pinotepa and Santiago Jamiltepec, and said
shelters were opened for those fleeing affected homes.
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In
the nation's capital, buildings swayed and minor damage was reported,
but Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the city was mostly
unscathed.
Many
residents, still shaken from the Sept. 19 earthquake that killed more
than 360 people, lingered in the streets instead of returning to their
office buildings and homes.
"We're
totally traumatized," said Maria Eugenia Angulo, 48, who was eating ice
cream with her children and grandchildren in the leafy Condesa
neighborhood when the earth started swaying.
Friday's
earthquake occurred in a seismically active section of Mexico, where
the Cocos plate is sliding underneath the North American plate.
Its
epicenter was about 140 miles southeast of the origin of the Sept. 19
earthquake and 275 miles northwest of the origin of a magnitude 8.1
quake that struck on Sept. 7, killing nearly 100 people in Oaxaca and
the neighboring state of Chiapas.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jana Pursley said Friday's earthquake was not related to either of September's temblors.
Damage near the epicenter was a given, Pursley said.
"It's a strong earthquake," she said. "In the immediate area, it is likely to cause damage."
Oaxaca
Gov. Alejandro Murat said in a television interview that 100,000
residents had lost power across the state and that some buildings had
been damaged but no deaths had been reported. In Juchitan, the area
hardest hit in the Sept. 7 quake, "no serious damage is reported so
far," he said.
That the damage wasn't more severe came as a great relief to earthquake-wary Mexicans — as well as vacationers.
Ricky Pierce, a Houston man staying Mexico City's Buenavista Holiday Inn, was on the fourth floor when the quake struck.
"I felt like I was on a boat in rough water," said Pierce, who was briefly evacuated before he was let back into the hotel.
A
crowd gathers outside the Holiday Inn on Insurgentes Avenue in Mexico
City after the earthquake, centered 225 miles south. (Wally Skalij / Los
Angeles Times)
Times staff writer Rong-Gong Lin II in San Francisco and Cecilia Sanchez in the Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.
UPDATES:
6:55 p.m.: This report has been updated for additional quotes and details.
This was originally posted at 4:10 p.m.
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