7.6 earthquake rocks Mexico’s Pacific coast; at least 1 dead

By Fabiola Sánchez and María Verza | Related Press

MEXICO CITY — A magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Mexico’s central Pacific coast on Monday, killing no less than one particular person and setting off a seismic alarm within the rattled capital on the anniversary of two earlier devastating quakes.

There have been no less than some early stories of harm to buildings from the quake, which hit at 1:05 p.m. native time, in keeping with the U.S. Geologic Survey, which had initially put the magnitude at 7.5.

It stated the quake was centered 23 miles southeast of Aquila close to the boundary of Colima and Michoacan states and at a depth of 9.4 miles.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated by way of Twitter that the secretary of the navy advised him one particular person was killed within the port metropolis of Manzanillo, Colima when a wall at a mall collapsed.

In Coalcoman, Michoacan, close to the quake’s epicenter, buildings had been broken, however there weren't fast stories of accidents.

“It began slowly after which was actually sturdy and continued and continued till it began to relent,” stated 16-year-old Carla Cárdenas, a resident of Coalcoman. Cárdenas ran out of her household’s lodge and waited with neighbors.

She stated the lodge and a few houses alongside the road displayed cracks in partitions and segments of facades and roofs had damaged off.

“Within the lodge, the roof of the parking space boomed and fell to the bottom, and there are cracks within the partitions on the second flooring,” Cárdenas stated.

She stated the city’s hospital was severely broken, however she had up to now not heard of anybody injured.

Instantly after the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Heart stated that waves reaching as much as 3 meters may hit Mexico. Preliminary tsunami waves have possible already occurred in coastal areas resembling Manzanillo and Acapulco, and will strike vacationer hotspot Puerto Vallarta as nicely.

Tsunami waves lower than 0.3 meters may additionally happen alongside the Pacific coasts of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru, in keeping with the group.

Mexico Metropolis Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum tweeted that there have been no stories of harm within the capital.

Alarms for the brand new quake got here lower than an hour after a quake alarms warbled in a nationwide earthquake simulation marking main quakes that struck on the identical date in 1985 and 2017. The magnitude 8.0 quake centered close to the coast of Guerrero state in 1985 killed no less than 9,500 folks. Greater than 360 folks died within the magnitude 7.1 quake that struck in 2017.

“This can be a coincidence,” that that is the third Sept. 19 earthquake, stated U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle. “There’s no bodily purpose or statistical bias towards earthquakes in any given month in Mexico.”

Neither is there a season or month for giant earthquakes anyplace on the globe, Earle stated. However there's a predictable factor: Individuals search and generally discover coincidences that seem like patterns.

“We knew we’d get this query as quickly because it occurred,” Earle stated. “Typically there are simply coincidences.”

The quake was not associated to or brought on by the drill an hour or so earlier, nor was it linked to a dangerous temblor in Taiwan the day earlier than, Earle stated.

Humberto Garza stood outdoors a restaurant in Mexico Metropolis’s Roma neighborhood holding his 3-year son. Like many milling about outdoors after the earthquake, Garza stated the earthquake alarm sounded so quickly after the annual simulation that he was undecided it was actual.

“I heard the alarm, nevertheless it sounded actually far-off,” he stated.

Exterior the town’s environmental ombudsman’s workplace, dozens of staff waited. Some appeared visibly shaken.

Energy was out in components of the town, together with stoplights, snarling the capital’s already infamous visitors.

AP writers Christopher Sherman in Mexico Metropolis and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report. CNN Wire Providers additionally contributed to this report.

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