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Strong 7.1 quake hits Mexico, people trapped in collapsed buildings

Damages are seen after an earthquake hit in Mexico City, Mexico September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing buildings and trapping an unknown number of people.

TV images showed a multi-story building in the capital with a middle floor collapsed as sirens blared from first responders rushing to the scene. Other video showed the side of a government building sheering off and falling into the street as bystanders screamed.

In Cuernavaca, a city south of Mexico City, there were unconfirmed reports on local radio of people trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

The quake came just over a week after another major quake shook the country. A civil protection official told local TV that an unspecified number of people were trapped inside various buildings that caught fire in Mexico City.

Mexican TV and social media showed cars crushed by debris. Many people fled into the streets, and electricity and phone lines were down in parts of the capital.

“We got out really fast, leaving everything as it was and just left,” said Rosaura Suarez, as she stood with a crowd on the street.

Tuesday’s epicenter was located 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Atencingo in the central state of Puebla at a depth of 32 miles (51 km), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake hit only hours after many people participated in earthquake drills around the nation on the anniversary of the devastating quake that killed thousands in Mexico City in 1985.

Many people were also still shaken from the recent quake on Sept. 7, a powerful 8.1 temblor that killed at least 98 people.

President Enrique Pena was on a flight to Oaxaca, one of the hardest hit areas by that quake, and said via his Twitter account that he was immediately returning to attend to the quake in Mexico City.

Damages are seen after an earthquake hit in Mexico City, Mexico September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Claudia Daut

(Reporting by Mexico City newsroom; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Quake pitches past into present in scarred Mexico City district

By Julia Love

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The powerful earthquake that rocked Mexico City last week had terrifying echoes of a more deadly 1985 shock in one housing project, raising tough questions about how ready one of the world’s largest cities is for a major catastrophe.

At its epicenter, Thursday’s 8.1 magnitude quake was stronger than the disaster three decades ago that killed at least 5,000 people in Mexico City, toppling two tower blocks in the historic central neighborhood of Tlatelolco.

Mexico City has made major advances since then, with regular earthquake simulations, improved building regulations, and seismic alarms designed to sound long enough before the shock to give residents time to flee.

Nearly 100 people are known to have died in the latest quake, none of them in the capital.

Yet experts noted the tremor’s epicenter was further from Mexico City and two times deeper than in 1985, and warned it would be wrong to assume the capital could now rest easy.

Such caution was palpable in Tlatelolco.

Antonio Fonseca, 66, a longtime resident who witnessed the 1985 collapse of the tower blocks in the Nuevo Leon housing complex that killed at least 200 people, said memories of the event sparked panic attacks in the neighborhood when the quake rolled through the city on Thursday.

“I’m quite sure that these buildings are very well reinforced,” said Fonseca, a local history expert. “But there are many people who are still wary.”

When the ground began shaking in September 1985, local workers laughed it off at first, continuing with breakfast. Nobody believed Fonseca when he told them Nuevo Leon had fallen, he recalled.

Later, Fonseca saw a group of children in the neighborhood’s central Plaza de las Tres Culturas who had been waiting for the school bus, their uniforms caked in white dust from the building’s collapse.

This time around, residents feared the worst. Streets filled across the city when the quake hit near midnight. Crying and praying, hundreds descended onto the plaza and some stayed for hours, questioning whether it was safe to return home.

Minerva de la Paz Uribe, a retiree living on the plaza, was unable to evacuate with her father, who turned 104 the next day. She watched from her window as neighbors scrambled to escape.

“People leave running with their dogs. They leave screaming. Are we prepared? No, no, we’re not prepared,” she said, as a group of friends on the plaza murmured in agreement.

Some 30 buildings in Tlatelolco were rebuilt after the 1985 disaster and a dozen were demolished. Mexico’s new skyscrapers include hydraulic shock absorbers and deep foundations.

But such safety features are less prevalent in much of the sprawling periphery, which is filled with cheap cinderblock homes like the buildings that collapsed on Thursday in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas near the epicenter.

CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT

Situated at the intersection of three tectonic plates, Mexico is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, and the capital is particularly vulnerable due to its location on top of an ancient lake bed.

The government’s widely panned response to the 1985 quake caused upheaval in Mexico, which some credited with weakening the one-party rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). After 71 years, the PRI was finally voted out in 2000.

Signs of government incompetence, or worse, persist.

Mexican news website Animal Politico on Monday reported that thousands of seismic alarms acquired by the government of Oaxaca five years ago were never distributed, with some appearing for sale on online auction sites.

A spokesman for Oaxaca’s civil protection authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mistrust of government has spurred some to form community groups. Among the most famous are the Tlatelolco Topos, or moles, formed from rescue squads that dug survivors and corpses out of the rubble in 1985, and have since traveled the world offering assistance in quakes and landslides.

But disasters have a habit of catching people off guard.

Georgina Mendez de Schaafsma was returning from taking children to school when the 1985 temblor struck Tlatelolco. To her horror, she realized her six-year-old daughter was home alone.

Racing back, Mendez retrieved the girl. But three other relatives died in the Nuevo Leon collapses.

Now 70, Mendez still lives in the same building, which had a number of floors removed after the 1985 quake. She stayed indoors when the tremors began on Thursday night and believes Mexico City is better equipped today – up to a point.

“In a catastrophe, I think we’re never prepared,” she said. “Nature is stronger.”

(Reporting by Julia Love, Additional reporting by Dave Graham, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

At least 32 die after massive quake off southern Mexico

By Frank Jack Daniel

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – At least 32 people were killed after a massive 8.1 magnitude earthquake, one of the biggest recorded in Mexico, struck off the country’s southern coast late on Thursday, causing cracks in buildings and triggering a small tsunami, authorities said.

The quake was apparently stronger than a devastating 1985 temblor that flattened swathes of Mexico City and killed thousands, but this time, damage to the city was limited.

A number of buildings suffered severe damage in parts of southern Mexico. Some of the worst initial reports came from the town of Juchitan in Oaxaca state, where sections of the town hall, a hotel, a bar and other buildings were reduced to rubble.

Alejandro Murat, the state governor, said 23 deaths were registered in Oaxaca, 17 of them in Juchitan.

A spokesman for emergency services said seven people were also confirmed dead in the neighboring state of Chiapas. Earlier, the governor of Tabasco, Arturo Nunez, said two children had died in his state.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the 8.1 magnitude quake had its epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, 54 miles (87 km) southwest of the town of Pijijiapan in the impoverished southern state of Chiapas, at a depth of 43 miles.

Rescue workers labored through the night in badly affected areas to check for people trapped in collapsed buildings.

Windows were shattered at Mexico City airport and power went out in several neighborhoods of the capital, affecting more than one million people. The cornice of a hotel came down in the southern tourist city of Oaxaca, a witness said.

The tremor was felt as far away as neighboring Guatemala.

WAVES

The quake triggered waves as high as 2.3 ft (0.7 m) in Mexico, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Mexican television showed images of the sea retreating about 50 meters, and authorities evacuated some coastal areas.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said the tsunami risk on the Chiapas coast was not major.

“We are alert,” he told local television.

More aftershocks were likely, the president said, advising people to check their homes and offices for structural damage and for gas leaks. The USGS reported multiple aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 4.3 to 5.7.

Classes were suspended in most of central and southern Mexico on Friday to allow authorities to review damage.

There was no tsunami threat for American Samoa and Hawaii, according to the U.S. Tsunami Warning System. The national disaster agency of the Philippines put the country’s eastern seaboard on alert, but no evacuation was ordered.

People in Mexico City, one of the world’s largest cities, ran out into the streets in pajamas and alarms sounded after the quake struck just before midnight, a Reuters witness said.

Helicopters buzzed overhead a few minutes later, apparently looking for damage to buildings in the city, which is built on a spongy, drained lake bed.

“I had never been anywhere where the earth moved so much. At first I laughed, but when the lights went out, I didn’t know what to do,” said Luis Carlos Briceno, an architect, 31, who was visiting Mexico City. “I nearly fell over.”

In one central neighborhood, dozens of people stood outside after the quake, some wrapped in blankets against the cool night air. Children were crying.

Liliana Villa, 35, who was in her apartment when the quake struck, fled to the street in her nightclothes.

“It felt horrible, and I thought, ‘this (building) is going to fall.'”

State oil company Pemex said it was still checking for damage at its installations.

Pena Nieto said operations at the Salina Cruz refinery in the same region as the epicenter were temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure.

(Repoorting by Mexico City Bureau, additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in the Philippines; Editing by Larry King and Bernadette Baum)

Quake kills two on Italian holiday island, young brothers saved

By Gabriele Pileri and Philip Pullella

CASAMICCIOLA, Italy (Reuters) – An earthquake hit the tourist-packed holiday island of Ischia on Monday night, killing two people, injuring dozens and trapping three young brothers who survived for up to 16 hours before being rescued.

Tourists and residents on the island off the coast of Naples ran out onto the narrow streets after the quake wrecked a church and several buildings. Fearing aftershocks, many decided to leave the island early.

Rescuers found a baby boy called Pasquale in the wreckage and pulled him out alive in his nappy early on Tuesday, seven hours after the shock. There was a hush followed by loud applause.

Fire crews found his brothers Mattia and Ciro, aged seven and 11, stuck under a bed nearby. They kept talking to them and fed water to them through a tube.

“I promised them that after this was all over we would all go get a pizza together,” one emergency worker said on Italian television.

They freed Mattia late on Tuesday morning and later extracted Ciro more than 16 hours after the quake hit. The parents were safe because they were in another room.

They said Ciro had probably saved his brother’s life by shoving him under the bed when the quake struck.

“The rescuers were great. We really have to thank God for this miracle,” said the island’s bishop, Pietro Lagnese.

About six buildings in the town of Casamicciola, including a church, collapsed in the quake, which hit at 8:57 p.m. (1857 GMT) on Monday. The walls of one were ripped open, exposing a kitchen with a table still set for dinner.

Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology put the magnitude at 4.0, revising it up from an initial 3.6, but both the U.S. Geological Survey and the European quake agency estimated it at 4.3.

It struck three days before the first anniversary of a major quake that killed nearly 300 people in central Italy, most of them in the town of Amatrice.

Rescue workers check a collapsed house after an earthquake hit the island of Ischia, off the coast of Naples, Italy August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca

FALLING MASONRY

The director of the island’s hospital said two women were killed and about 40 injured. One of the victims was hit by falling masonry from the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio, the Civil Protection Department in Rome said.

The church was rebuilt after it, like most of Casamicciola, was destroyed by an earthquake that killed about 2,000 people in 1883.

Most of the damage was in the high part of the volcanic island. Hotels and residences on the coast did not appear to suffer serious damage but fire brigades were checking to see if they were still habitable.

The island has a year-round population of about 63,000, which swells to more than 200,000 in summer, with many people from the mainland owning holiday homes.

Civil Protection Department head Angelo Borrelli said about 2,600 people could not re-enter their homes, pending checks.

Helicopters and a ferry boat brought in more rescue workers from the mainland. Some civil protection squads were already on the island because of brushfires.

Three extra ferries were provided during the night for about 1,000 residents and tourists who wanted to leave. As daylight broke, dozens of people went to the island’s ports, having decided to end their vacations early.

Many who were due to take ferries from Naples on the mainland to start their vacations canceled their plans, local officials said.

Ischia, about a one-hour ride from Naples, is popular with German tourists, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has stayed there often.

Rescue workers carry a child after an earthquake hit the island of Ischia, in Naples, Italy August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca

(Philip Pullella reported from Rome; writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Nick Macfie and Mark Trevelyan)

Magnitude 6.2 quake hits Philippine island of Luzon, jolts buildings

Students use their hands to cover their heads as they evacuate their school premises after an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hit the northern island of Luzon and was felt in the Metro Manila, Philippines August 11, 2017, shaking buildings and forcing the evacuation of offices and schools. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

MANILA (Reuters) – An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hit the Philippines’ northern island of Luzon on Friday and was felt in the capital Manila, shaking buildings and forcing the evacuation of offices and schools.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries in the quake, which the United States Geological Survey earlier measured at 6.6. The quake struck at 1:28 pm (0528 GMT) 10.7 km (6.6 miles) southeast of Nasugbu, in the province of Batangas, at a depth of 168 km (104 miles).

No tsunami warning was issued by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, which put the magnitude of the quake at 6.3, and said it expected aftershocks.

The Philippines is on the geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire and experiences frequent earthquakes.

(Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr. and Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Earthquake in China’s Sichuan kills 19, including tourists; injures 247

By Christian Shepherd

JIUZHAIGOU, China (Reuters) – A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck a remote, mountainous part of China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, killing 19 people, including eight tourists, and injuring 247, the provincial government and official media said on Wednesday.

The quake hit a sparsely populated area 200 km (120 miles) northwest of the city of Guangyuan late on Tuesday at a depth of 10 km (6 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was also close to the Jiuzhaigou nature reserve, a tourist destination.

Sichuan is frequently struck by tremors. A huge quake there in May 2008 killed almost 70,000 people.

A separate quake of magnitude 6.6 hit a remote part of China’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang, more than 2,000 km (1,240 miles) away, on Wednesday, the Chinese earthquake administration said. The People’s Daily said 32 people had been injured in the mostly rural area.

The Sichuan government said rescuers were gradually evacuating tourists and residents who had been cut off by landslides.

It added that 19 people had been killed, but most of those injured were not seriously hurt.

The dead included eight tourists, two residents and nine whose identities have yet to be confirmed, state television said.

In nearby Longnan in the neighboring province of Gansu, also jolted by the quake, eight people died in landslides caused by heavy rain, the People’s Daily said.

The Sichuan government added that 45,000 tourists had been evacuated from the quake zone with just 1,000 more still waiting to leave.

A few dozen tourists were camped out at Jiuzhaigou airport, waiting for flights. The airport was open and beginning to evacuate people by air, state media said.

A traveler with a young daughter who gave his family name as Li said he was in his hotel when the earthquake hit.

“The walls and floor shook. Some things fell off the table,” he said.

Some people were injured in the hotel but most were fine.

“The rescue services showed up quickly and gave us water and things to eat,” Li said, adding that he received priority in evacuation since he was accompanied by a small child.

“At first the road was blocked, but they had cleared a lane this morning for ambulances.”

A French man and a Canadian woman suffered light injuries, Xinhua reported.

All 341 Taiwan tourists in 19 tour groups were safe, the government of the self-ruled island said, however.

The Sichuan government dismissed as overblown earlier fears that part of a hotel had collapsed, saying damage proved minor and everyone was evacuated safely.

The Sichuan earthquake administration, which also assessed the quake magnitude at 7.0, said its epicenter was in Ngawa prefecture, populated chiefly by ethnic Tibetans, many of whom are nomadic herders.

The area was rattled by aftershocks on Wednesday.

Pictures on state-run social media sites showed some damage in Jiuzhaigou, with tiles having fallen off buildings and people gathering outdoors.

State television said electricity had largely been restored to affected areas and the military was also sending rescuers.

The Sichuan government said on one of its official social media sites that more than 38,000 tourists were now visiting Jiuzhaigou.

Shaking was felt in the provincial capital, Chengdu, and as far away as Xian, home of the famous terracotta warrior figures, according to the government.

The Xinjiang quake’s epicenter was in Jinghe county, about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Kazakhstan, where about 140,000 people live, according to Xinhua.

Residents several hundred kilometers away in Urumqi, and the cities of Karamay and Yining, felt strong tremors, Xinhua said. The jolt lasted about 20 seconds, it said.

(This version of the story removes extraneous name in byline)

(Additional reporting by David Stanway in Shanghai, Michael Martina in Beijing and Faith Hung in Taipei; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry and Clarence Fernandez)

Earthquake of 5.3 magnitude shakes southwest Turkey’s Bodrum: USGS

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 shook southwestern Turkey near the Aegean coastal town of Bodrum on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured. The quake struck some 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) southeast of Bodrum, the USGS said.

Bodrum is a popular resort for both Turks and foreigners on holidays during the summer months.

“We shook throughout the night, again very heavily this morning,” one witness told Reuters via telephone. “I put on my shoes and went into another room and it was shaking the entire time, it lasted a long time.”

The earthquake is the latest to rock the Aegean region this summer. Last month, a powerful quake killed two people on the Greek holiday island of Kos, sending tourists fleeing into the streets and causing disruption in Bodrum as well.

In June, a powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck Turkey’s western coast and the Greek island of Lesbos, killing one person and rattling buildings from the Turkish province of Izmir to the Greek capital of Athens.

(Reporting by David Dolan and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans and Catherine Evans)

Moderate earthquake shakes central Oklahoma

(Reuters) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 struck in central Oklahoma on Wednesday night, the United States Geological Survey (USGS)said.

The quake around 10 p.m. local time was centered 20 miles (30 km) north of Oklahoma City, just outside of Edmond, the USGS reported on its website.

Power outages were reported in Edmond, city officials said on Twitter. About 1.3 million people live in the area hit by the quake.

“I was laying in my bed trying to relax and then bam…things were falling off my walls, stuff was falling out of my closet etc.,” said Jonna Clayton, a Oklahoma State University student, on Twitter.

The earthquake followed four other quakes with magnitudes from 3.0 to 3.5 in the area since Tuesday.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Michael Perry and Kim Coghill)

Up to 6.6 magnitude quake off Greece and Turkey kills two

By Vassilis Triandafyllou and Tuvan Gumrukcu

KOS, Greece/ANKARA (Reuters) – A powerful earthquake killed two people on the Greek holiday island of Kos in the early hours of Friday, sending tourists fleeing into the streets, and causing disruption in the nearby Turkish tourist hub of Bodrum.

A Turkish and a Swedish tourist, aged 39 and 22 years, died when the roof of a popular bar collapsed, Greek police said. Kos’s port was put out of action and, across the strait, a small tsunami damaged vehicles parked near Bodrum’s shore.

On Kos, around 115 people were injured, including tourists of various nationalities — 12 of them seriously. More than 350 people visited hospitals in Turkey, though most had only light injuries.

The quake struck at 1:31 a.m. (2231 GMT), and many of Kos’s tourists spent the rest of the night in the open as a precaution, hotel owners said.

“All of a sudden it felt like a train was going right through the room,” said Vernon Hausman, a German holidaying on Kos.

“I told my son: ‘Looks like an earthquake, so let’s get the hell out of here.'”

Greek authorities said the 12 people seriously injured on Kos included tourists from Turkey, Sweden and Norway; four were transferred to Crete and three to Athens.

One person was in a critical condition, while a Swedish tourist lost a leg, the director of the hospital in Crete told Greek Skai TV.

“LUCKY ESCAPE”

Turkish and Greek authorities put the magnitude at 6.3 and 6.6 respectively and reported several aftershocks, with one estimated at 5.1. The U.S. Geological Survey located the epicenter of the main quake in the Aegean Sea, 10 km (6 miles) SSE of Bodrum and about 16 km ENE of Kos’s main port.

Hotel owners in Bodrum told Turkish broadcasters that some tourists were checking out.

“It was a lucky escape and it could have been much worse,” said Issa Kamara, a 38-year old personal trainer at the Maca Kizi hotel in Bodrum’s smart Turkbuku area.

Constantina Svynou, head of the hoteliers’ association in Kos, told Greek state television that many visitors had spent the night outside their hotels.

“There are about 200,000 tourists on the island, we are at the peak season. Our first reaction was to calm the tourists, following basic rules and evacuating hotel buildings,” Svynou said, adding that there had been no injuries at hotels.

Reuters video footage showed residents and tourists walking along the streets of Kos’s main town among collapsed walls and debris. Long, wide cracks appeared in the asphalt on the quayside, which is near a tourist strip of cafes and bars.

“It was terrible … our bed was shaking from the left to the right,” said Jara, a 26-year-old Dutch tourist. “Everything was going crazy.”

Kos’s airport remained operational and Greek Deputy Shipping Minister Nektarios Santorinios flew there. But he said the main port was out of action.

“Passengers on ferries have been rerouted to the islands of Nisyros and Kalymnos,” he told Greek SKAI TV.

TIDAL WAVE

Police said most of the damage in Kos had been to older buildings.

A seismologist told Greek TV that there had been a tidal wave about 70 cm (28 inches) high.

Turkey’s emergency authorities warned against aftershocks, but said there had been no casualties or major damage there. Some power cuts were reported, and a minaret in the town of Islamkoy was said to have collapsed.

The broadcaster CNN Turk said that, in Bodrum, 60 vehicles had been dragged along by the water. It also showed boats listing in a harbor. Several store owners told the broadcaster NTV they had suffered flood damage.

Turkey said it would evacuate around 200 of its citizens from Greece by boat.

President Tayyip Erdogan said the fact that no lives had been lost in Turkey was a sign that “the measures we took have been effective”.

Turkey’s location between the Arabian tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate renders it prone to earthquakes.

In October 2011, more than 600 people died in the eastern province of Van following a 7.2-magnitude quake and powerful aftershocks. In 1999, two massive earthquakes killed about 20,000 people in Turkey’s densely populated northwest.

The same year, a 5.9 magnitude quake killed 143 people in Greece.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, Renee Maltezou, Michele Kambas and George Georgiopoulos in Athens, and Sandra Maler in Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Magnitude 7.8 quake hits off Russia’s Kamchatka: USGS

(Reuters) – A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a tsunami warning but the threat has now passed, the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Pacific Tsunami Center said.

The quake struck at 11:34 a.m. on Tuesday (2334 GMT on Monday) some 125 miles (200 km) from the city of Nikolskoye on Bering island off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The epicenter was west of Attu, the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands.

The earthquake was very shallow, only 6 miles (10 km) below the seabed, which would have amplified its effect, but it was far from any mainland and there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

The Kamchatka branch of Russia’s emergency situations ministry had warned that waves up to 50 cm (1-2/2 feet) high could reach Nikolskoye.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had warned earlier that “hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 300 km (186 miles) of the earthquake epicenter.” But it later said that based on all available data the tsunami threat from this earthquake had passed.

The quake was initially reported as a magnitude 7.7 before being revised down to 7.4 and finally upgraded to 7.8, a major quake normally capable of causing widespread and heavy damage when striking on or near land.

The quake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including several above magnitude 5.0.

(Reporting by Sandra Maler; Additional reporting by Alex Winning in Moscow; Editing by Peter Cooney and Diane Craft)

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