One of the strongest to shake Mexico since the deadly 1985 temblor that killed thousands in Mexico City, Tuesday’s earthquake hit hardest in border area of southern Oaxaca and Guerrero states, where Guerrero official confirmed that some 800 homes had been damaged, with another 60 having collapsed.
Hours after the shaking at noon local time, there were still no reports of death or serious injury, even after a less powerful, magnitude-5.1 aftershock was felt in the capital and several other aftershocks near the epicenter in a mountainous rural region.
“It was very strong, very substantial,” said Campos Benitez, hospital director in Ometepec, about 25 kilometers from the epicenter.
Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre, who is from Ometepec, was headed there to survey the damage and ordered emergency crews and civil protection to the area to help with the damage. The state did not say how many were displaced.
In Mexico City, frightened workers and residents poured into the streets of the capital. Telephone service was down in the city and throughout the area where the quake was felt and some neighborhoods were without power, according to Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who set up a hotline for people to report damage.
A pedestrian bridge collapsed on an empty transit bus.
About 40 passengers were stranded for a short time on the Mexico City airport air train, but later released. The airport closed for a time but officials said there was no runway damage and they resumed operations.
Samantha Rodriguez, a 37-year old environmental consultant, was evacuated from the 11th floor on the Angel Tower office building.
“I thought it was going to pass rapidly but the walls began to thunder and we decided to get out,” she said.
Mexico City, built on a lakebed, was badly damaged in 1985 when an 8.0 earthquake killed at least 10,000 people. In past years, Guerrero has suffered several severe earthquakes, including a 7.9 in 1957 which killed an estimated 68 people, and a 7.4 in 1995 which left three dead.
Tuesday’s quake was the strongest shaking felt in the capital since a magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck also in Guerrero in December. Officials said at least three people died in Guerrero, but there were no reports of widespread damage.
A magnitude-8.0 quake near Manzanillo on Mexico’s central Pacific coast killed 51 people in 1995 and a magintude-7.5 quake killed at least 20 people in the southern state of Oaxaca in 1999.
In Huajuapan, Guerrero, near the epicenter, hotel manager Marco Antonio Estrada also reported shaken-up guests but no major damage. He said it was longest and strongest he ever felt. People ran out of their homes and cars.
“It was very strong, but we didn’t see anything fall,” said Irma Ortiz, who runs a guesthouse in Oaxaca. She said their telephones are down, and that the quake shook them side-to-side.
The U.S. Geological Survey set the preliminary magnitude of the first quake at 7.4 and said the epicenter was 11 miles underground. The survey set the aftershock at 5.1.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s oldest daughter, Malia, was reported and safe while on vacation with a school group in Oaxaca.
Groups of women hugged and cried at Mexico City’s Angel of Independence monument, where hundreds of people evacuated from office buildings said they never had felt such a strong earthquake. Others typed ferociously on their Blackberries.
Mexico City’s airport was closed for a short time but there was no damage to runways and operations were returning to normal.
In Oaxaca, Sylvia Valencia was teaching Spanish to five adult students at the Vinigulaza language school when the earthquake hit.
“Some of us sat down, others ran out,” she said. “It was hard, it was strong and it was long.”
After the shaking stopped, however, she said they found no damage, not in their own classrooms, nor outside in the historical center of the city, so they went back to class.
Celia Galicia, who works at the U.S. consular office in Oaxaca, had just flown in from Mexico City when it hit.
She said there was panic in the airport, and a dash for the doors. But she said that she saw no damage at the airport and no one was hurt. She says one building in downtown Oaxaca appears to be damaged and has been evacuated.
She added that they’ve had two strong aftershocks, and that in downtown Oaxaca most people are out on the street at this point.
“It started shaking badly,” she said. (AP)
<관련 한글 기사>
멕시코서 규모 7.4 강진…주택 800여채 붕괴
멕시코 남서부 게레로주(州)에서 20일 정오 직후(현지시간) 규모 7.4의 강진이 발생, 피해가 잇따르고 있다.
몇분간 지속된 이번 지진과 뒤이어 발생한 규모 5.1의 여진 등으로 인해 수도인 멕시코시티를 포함해 지진의 영향을 받은 지역에서는 육교가 무너지고 가옥 800여채 붕괴됐다.
또 전화통화가 이뤄지지 않고, 일부 지역에서는 전력공급도 끊기는 등 각종 피해가 속출하고 있다.
수도 멕시코시티에서는 지진의 여파로 건물이 흔들리는 등 강한 진동이 느껴져 시민들이 건물 밖으로 급하게 대피했다. 일부 건물의 경우 유리창이 깨지고 지붕이 무너지는 등 붕괴가 우려되고 있다. 인근 공항도 일시적으로 폐쇄되기도 했다.
하지만 아직 인명피해 상황은 보고되지 않고 있다.
펠리페 칼데론 멕시코 대통령은 트위터를 통해 멕시코시티 등에서 심각한 피해는 발생하지 않았다고 전했으며 마르셀로 에브라르드 멕시코시티 시장도 트위터로 "
상하수도 시스템 등 전략적인 인프라시설에 문제가 발생하지 않았다"고 강조했다.
태평양쓰나미경보센터(PTWC)는 "대규모 쓰나미가 발생하지는 않았지만 지엽적인 쓰나미가 발생할 수는 있다"고 경고했다.
이번 지진의 진앙은 게레로주 오메테펙시에서 남서쪽으로 25㎞ 떨어진 지역이며 깊이는 17.7㎞였다.
미국 지질조사국(USGS)은 당초 지진의 규모를 7.9라고 발표했다가 7.6에 이어 7 .4로 낮췄다.
이번 지진은 지난 1985년 멕시코시티에서 발생한 규모 8.1 지진으로 6천명 이상 이 사망한 이후 가장 강력한 것으로 기록됐다.
한편 봄 방학을 맞아 동료 학생들과 함께 멕시코 오악사카지역을 여행중인 버락 오바마 미국 대통령의 첫째딸 말리아는 안전한 것으로 확인됐다. (연합뉴스)
