Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake Hits Panama, Collapsing a Cathedral and Forcing Evacuations
The quake struck near the country's southern tip Friday morning and shook buildings more than 100 miles away in Panama City. A tsunami warning was issued and then lifted, and no casualties were immediately reported.
A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck near Panama's southern tip on Friday morning, shaking buildings more than 100 miles away in the capital and sending residents running into the streets, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake was centered about 7 miles southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba and struck at a depth of about 7 miles, the USGS said. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially warned that tsunami waves could reach Panama's coast, but later said the threat had passed.
Tremors were felt strongly in Panama City, where buildings shook and people evacuated. Visibly shaken residents gathered outside and waited for news of the quake's impact. "We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen, but we're OK, though we're very scared," Rosendo Domínguez, 60, who is from Herrera province, where the earthquake struck, told The Associated Press by phone. "Everyone is outside, scared."
Aftershocks followed. The USGS recorded two of them, measuring 5.8 and 5.5.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino called for calm in a post on social media. "What happened should not be used to cause alarm or disorder," he wrote. Omar Smith of the National Civil Protection Service said on the Telemetro Reporta news channel that damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera and Los Santos. He said there were no reports of damage in the capital, which is known for its hundreds of skyscrapers.
Video aired by local news outlets showed a Catholic cathedral collapsing and part of a hotel's facade falling onto a car in the city of Penonomé, in the central province of Coclé. No casualties were immediately reported, and Panama's Civil Protection agency said it was investigating possible damage in regions near the epicenter.
The quake is at least the fourth this year in Latin America to surpass magnitude 7.0. It follows devastating earthquakes in Venezuela's Guaira in June and a powerful earthquake in western Colombia in August.
Panama lies along the Ring of Fire, the 25,000-mile arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin where most of the world's earthquakes occur. A quake of this size at such a shallow depth releases its energy close to the surface, which is why shaking was felt so widely even though the epicenter sits in a sparsely populated stretch of the country.
Officials were still assessing damage in the central provinces on Friday afternoon. The tsunami warning that had put coastal communities on alert was canceled once the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center determined the threat had passed.
