Mexico earthquake topples homes and causes fresh alarm
MEXICO - A strong new earthquake shook Mexico on Saturday, toppling already damaged homes and a highway bridge and causing new alarm in a country reeling from two even more powerful quakes this month that together have killed nearly 400 people.
The US Geological Survey said the new magnitude 6.1 temblor was centered about 11 miles (18km) southsoutheast of Matias Romero in the state of Oaxaca, the region most battered by a magnitude 8.1 quake on 7 September. It was among thousands of aftershocks recorded in the wake of that earlier quake, which was the most powerful to hit Mexico in 32 years and killed at least 90 people.
There was some damage in Oaxaca but no immediate reports of new deaths. The federal police agency posted images online showing a collapsed bridge that it said had already been closed due to damage after the 7 September quake. Cruz belongs to a social collective and said that when the shaking began, she was riding in a truck carrying supplies to victims of the earlier quake. Nataniel Hernandez said by phone from Tonala, in the southern state of Chiapas, which was also hit hard by the earlier quake, that it was one of the strongest aftershocks he has felt. “Since 7 September it has not stopped shaking,” he said. President Enrique Peña Nieto tweeted: “At the moment the greatest damage has been to the Ixtaltepec bridge, which should be rebuilt, and structures with previous damage that collapsed.” He said government workers were fanning out in Juchitan to provide help to anyone who needs it.
Jaime Hernandez, director of the Federal Electrical Commission, said the quake knocked out power to 327,000 homes and businesses in Oaxaca but service had been restored to 72% of customers within a few hours. That included Syntia Pereda, 43, who was reluctant to leave the bedside of her sleeping boyfriend. Jesus Gonzalez, 49, fell from a third-story balcony of a building where he was working during Tuesday’s quake and was awaiting surgery. But she controlled her emotions, went outside and came back when the trembling was over. Alejandra Castellanos was on the second floor of a hotel in a central neighborhood of Mexico City and ran down the stairs and outside with her husband. “I was frightened because I thought, not again!” Castellanos said. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said there were no reports of significant new damage in the capital, and rescue efforts related to Tuesday’s quake were continuing. He reported that two people died of apparent heart attacks during the new temblor.
At the site of an office building that collapsed on Tuesday and where an around-the-clock search for survivors was continuing, rescuers briefly evacuated from atop the pile of rubble after the morning quake before returning to work. As rescue operations stretched into day five, residents throughout the capital held out hope that dozens still missing might be found alive. More than half the dead 167 perished in the capital, while 73 died in the state of Morelos, 45 in Puebla, 13 in Mexico State, six in Guerrero and one in Oaxaca.
(The Guardian/Foto: theguardian.com)