Powerful quake hits Panama, damages homes
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Panama’s southern coast on Friday, October 9, at a depth of 12.6 kilometres, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The quake damaged several buildings but did not disrupt operations on the vital Panama Canal trade route.
Earthquakes of such magnitude are uncommon in Panama. Television footage showed elderly residents in tears as a series of weaker aftershocks continued to shake the country.
Ricardo Brown, 74, who lives in the Las Minas area of Herrera province in southern Panama, said the tremor had damaged several homes and left residents afraid for their safety.
“We’re scared. It’s just the two of us old folks here. The house has cracked, and we’re afraid it could fall on us,” he said in a telephone interview.
The earthquake’s epicentre was near La Pitaloza, a sparsely populated rural community in Herrera province, close to the Pacific coast. Tremors were also felt in San Jose, the capital of neighbouring Costa Rica, according to a Reuters witness.
Omar Smith, head of Panama’s civil protection agency, told local broadcaster Telemetro Reporta that damage had been reported in Chitre, the capital of Herrera, as well as along the coast of Los Santos province.
Videos shared by newspaper La Prensa showed the tower of a historic building collapsing, alongside several balconies of a residential building in Penonome, a city located between the epicentre and Panama City.
In the capital, services on two lines of the Panama City Metro were temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure, according to the operator. The Ministry of Education also ordered the closure of schools nationwide.
Following the earthquake, the US Tsunami Warning System warned that potentially dangerous tsunami waves could affect parts of the coastlines of Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico within three hours.
The system also issued a tsunami threat for Hawaii, while Chile’s navy released a separate tsunami alert.
The earthquake occurred just days before Panama’s scheduled national evacuation exercise on Monday, October 12, which is intended to test the country’s emergency preparedness and response capabilities in the event of an earthquake.
Source: Reuters
About The Author
