- 2021-09-08 01:16:34
- LAST MODIFIED: 2024-11-21 07:47:59
Strong quake hits near Acapulco, buildings sway in capital
Photo Collected:
International Desk:
Dhaka, Sept-08,
A powerful earthquake
struck near the Pacific resort city of Acapulco on Tuesday night, causing
buildings to rock and sway in Mexico City nearly 200 miles away, but no serious
damage or injuries were reported.
The U.S. Geological
Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered 17
kilometers (about 10 miles) northeast of Acapulco.
“We heard loud noise
from the building, noise from the windows, things fell inside the house, the
power went out,” said Sergio Flores, an Acapulco resident reached by phone. “We
heard leaking water, the water went out of the pool and you heard people
screaming, very nervous people.”
All he could do when it
started shaking was hug his wife, Flores said. He saw people leaving hotels
around the bay and some running into parking decks to remove their cars,
fearing a collapse.
“We were all worried
about some change in the sea, but so far authorities have not said anything
about a tsunami alert,” he said.
Guerrero Gov. Hector
Astudillo said the tsunami alert center had not registered any variations in
the sea level. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center later said the threat of
potential waves had passed.
The mayor of Acapulco,
Adela Román, said in statement to the television news outlet Milenio that
“there is no really serious situation” so far and no reports of casualties.
“There are nervous breakdowns,
people are worried because there have been aftershocks,” she said, adding that
there are “many gas leaks in many places” as well as some landslides and fallen
walls.
President Andrés Manuel
López Obrador said via Twitter that authorities in the four states that most
felt the earthquake told him there were no victims or serious damage beyond
some collapsed walls and falling rocks.
“Fortunately there is
not serious damage,” he said. “Fortunately, so far we don’t have information
about the loss of any lives.”
Mexico’s National Civil
Defense said it was conducting reviews in 10 states, but had not received
reports of victims nor serious damage.
In Mexico City, the
ground shook for nearly a minute in some parts of the capital, but the quake
was less evident in other parts. Some people evacuated their buildings briefly,
but most quickly went back inside on a rainy night.
“I was at home with my
mom and my dogs and the seismic alert started to sound,” said Claudia
Guarneros, a makeup artist. “My mother was in another room and I started to
call her. The house started moving and in the last part of the earthquake the
power went out and we couldn’t see anything, we just saw some things falling.”
Mexico City authorities
said there were no early reports of significant damage in the city, though
electricity was knocked out in some neighborhoods. Some broken windows in a
downtown high rise covered the sidewalk in glass.
Arturo Hernández stood
outside the relatively new apartment building he moved into just three years
ago. Beside it stood a taller building abandoned since the magnitude-7.1
earthquake of Sept. 19, 2017, in neighboring Puebla state that caused major
damage in the capital.
Hernández heard the
seismic alarm and made it outside before the ground began to shake. The
abandoned building next to his continued to crack and moan for three minutes
after the shaking stopped, he said. Asked if he had worried about the damaged
building next door, he said, “Always, always.”
Tuesday’s earthquake
occurred four years to the day after a magnitude-8.2 earthquake that struck off
the coast of Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, largely destroying the town of
Juchitan in neighboring Oaxaca state and killing dozens.
End/Dct/Idr/Sma/