Major quake shakes southern Mexico, at least six killed

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Members of the police and fire department working near the site of collapsed wall, following an earthquake, in Oaxaca, Mexico, on June 23, 2020. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
People react after an earthquake in Mexico City, June 23, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS
People react after an earthquake in Mexico City, June 23, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS
People react after an earthquake in Mexico City, June 23, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS
People react after an earthquake in Mexico City, June 23, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS
People react after an earthquake in Mexico City, June 23, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS
Health workers use their mobile phones on a street during a quake in Mexico City, on June 23, 2020. PHOTO: AFP
People react during a quake at an open market in Mexico City, on June 23, 2020. PHOTO: AFP

LA CRUCECITA, MEXICO (REUTERS) – A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck southern Mexico’s Pacific coast on Tuesday (June 24), killing at least six people and cutting off isolated villages, as well as causing damage to buildings hundreds of kilometres away in Mexico City.

The fatalities were near the quake’s centre in Oaxaca, a mountainous state known for its coffee, mescal and Spanish colonial architecture.

A Reuters witness in the tourist town of La Crucecita, which Mexican authorities said was the epicentre of the earthquake, saw anxious residents standing outside their homes on the streets many hours after the tremor as they feared deadly aftershocks.

Many houses were scarred by huge cracks across walls and residents sought to clear debris from the streets, the Reuters witness added.

About 200 houses in the area were damaged, including 30 that were badly impacted, a local official said.

“We lost everything in one moment to nature,” said Vicente Romero, an owner of a stationery store whose house suffered vast structural damage. “This is our life’s work.”

Rockfalls blocked the winding mountain roads between the state capital of Oaxaca city and the coast.

Rescue workers have not reached all villages reported to have suffered damage, raising fears that more people may be injured or killed.

A Oaxaca state official said rescue workers were trying to get to the settlement of Santa Catarina Xanaguia, near the epicentre, where the quake brought down homes or parts of the mountainside, trapping people.

People had sent messages for help by phone, the official added. A clinic and old churches in hill villages near the epicenter were severely damaged, images on social media showed.

The dead included a worker from state oil company Pemex, who fell from a height. Pemex was forced to briefly shutter the country’s biggest oil refinery in Oaxaca.

Miguel Candelaria, 30, was working at his computer in his family home in the Oaxaca town of Juchitan when the ground began to tremble.

He ran outside with relatives, but they had to stop in the middle of the street as the pavement buckled and rocked.

“We couldn’t walk... the street was like chewing gum,” said Candelaria, 30.

MEXICO CITY SHAKES

In Mexico City, buildings shook strongly and people ran into the streets when an early warning seismic alarm sounded.

The US Geological Survey said the epicenter of Tuesday’s quake was located 69 km northeast of the town of Pochutla.

It was very shallow, only 26 km below the earth’s surface, which would have amplified the shaking.

Quakes of magnitudes over 7 are major earthquakes capable of widespread, heavy damage. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck central Mexico in 2017 killed 355 people in the capital and the surrounding states.

Two people were injured and more than 30 buildings in the capital suffered damage, officials said, including buildings still scarred from a 2017 earthquake.

Water from rooftop pools or tanks cascaded down residential buildings in the city, and construction workers on the 56th storey of a new residential tower clung to each other as it swayed, images on social media showed.

The ocean receded on Oaxaca’s Pacific coast and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned of a possible tsunami as far away as South America but later said the danger had passed.

Near to the epicentre, Magdalena Castellanos Fermin was in the village of Santiago Astata when the quake struck, sending large rocks tumbling down from the hillside and alarming residents, she told Reuters by telephone.

"It was really intense, really strong," she said.

Eunice Pineda, a 26-year-old teacher in Juchitan, said the quake “was two minutes of torture”, as she feared her house would collapse.

But residents in one of Mexico’s most seismically active regions have learned to “live one day at a time”, Pineda added. “We learn to appreciate, to treasure every moment,” she said

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