Magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes Mexico, at least 2 dead in building collapses
Ns News Online Desk: The coast of southern Mexico was rattled by a powerful earthquake on Tuesday morning that killed at least two people and triggered a tsunami alert for Pacific coastlines along Central America.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 and struck at 11:29 a.m. ET, 7 miles west of Santa María Zapotitlán, Mexico. The temblor had a depth of about 20 miles and was centered along the Pacific coast of Oaxaca state near the resort of Huatulco.
THE “RING OF FIRE’ EXPLAINED
The quake was felt in Guatemala and throughout south and central Mexico.The National Weather Service’s (NWS) Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) initially said that “hazardous” tsunami waves from the quake were possible within 620 miles of the epicenter, along the Pacific coasts of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.That threat passed about two hours after the initial quake, with the PTWC saying that waves of up to 2.2 feet were recorded in Acapulco and Salina Cruz. “Minor sea level fluctuations of up to 0.3 meters above and below the normal tide may continue over the next few hours,” the agency said.
Guatemala’s national disaster agency issued a tsunami alert for its southern Pacific coast forecasting the arrival of waves up to a meter high. It advised people to move away from the sea.Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said one person was killed and another injured in a building collapse in Huatulco, Oaxaca. Otherwise he said reports were of minor damage such as broken windows and collapsed walls.
Oaxaca Gov. Alejandro Murat later said a second person was killed in an apparent house collapse in the tiny mountain village of San Juan Ozolotepec.Ports, airports and refineries were not damaged, he said in a video-recorded phone conversation with his civil defense chief. There had been more than 140 aftershocks, most of them small. The Mexican Red Cross told Fox News in a statement that volunteers from the organization are continuing to make tours in ambulances to identify possible victims.