An Earthquake In Mexico Causes Death And Destruction

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Southern Mexico was shaken Thursday at 11:50 p.m. local time by an 8.2-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale, the largest recorded in the country in the last 100 years.

So far, the authorities have reported a minimum of 58 deaths and 200 injuries due to the earthquake, particularly in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, where images of demolished houses and tumbled buildings arrive.

In Mexico City the tremor caused a great alarm and its residents took to the streets, sometimes in pajamas, amid the roar of the alarms. Despite the intensity, at the moment the damage to the federal capital seems minimal

The epicenter has been located off the coast of Chiapas, southwest of El Palmarcito and 228 kilometers from Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Security protocols were immediately activated in the affected areas.

"Yes, it was an earthquake of great magnitude," Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto explained to the television program Foro TV (Televisa). "Consequently, if there can be structural damage to both buildings and homes."

As of 3 am Friday, local time, 65 aftershocks had been recorded, the president himself said. The first, just 12 minutes from the earthquake, was 5.7 degrees. One of those that followed reached 6.1 degrees.

"We are going to continue working on making a more precise assessment of the damage caused by this earthquake," said Peña Nieto, who warned that a replication greater than 7 degrees could be presented in the next 24 hours, so he asked the population that is alert.

This Thursday's earthquake violently surpassed even the remembered 1985 earthquake, which claimed the lives of at least 10,000 people and demolished a large number of buildings in Mexico City.