Deadly quake shakes Mexico

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Deadly quake shakes Mexico
Wednesday, January 22, 2003 Posted: 2:16 PM EST (1916 GMT)

;] tk wuz here

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The Mexican government declared a state of emergency Wednesday for the coastal state of Colima as authorities sifted through the ruins of buildings, looking for victims of a powerful earthquake that killed at least 23 people and injured 160.

The quake, which U.S. experts estimated to be 7.8 in magnitude, hit the agricultural state of Colima the hardest, killing at least 21 people in the capital, Colima, said Fernando Moreno Pena, the state's governor. Mexican officials said two others died in the state of Jalisco. (Map)

According to Pena, many residents live in fragile, adobe houses and authorities fear more people may be trapped inside the rubble.

The Mexican government said the exact death toll won't be known until later Wednesday.

Authorities were trying to fan out in small villages around Colima but have been hampered by damaged bridges. The Mexican government dispatched small aircraft to remote areas of Mexico to assess damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, put the quake's magnitude at 7.8, but the National Seismological Center in Mexico City calculated a magnitude of 7.6.

"We feel that the 7.8 will be the magnitude of record," Waverly Person, a USGS geophysicist told CNN. "We are fortunate to have data coming in from around the world in real time," whereas calculations made by the Mexican experts are based on local data.

The Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Pacific Coast around Colima, about 30 miles east-southeast of the city of Manzanillo. It struck Tuesday at 8:06 p.m. local time (9:06 p.m. EST).

An earthquake with a magnitude of more than 7.0 is capable of widespread and heavy damage.

The quake was felt more than 300 miles away in the capital, Mexico City, where buildings swayed and residents gathered in the streets as a precaution.

Landslides knocked out utilities in some areas, said Carlos Gelista, Mexico's director of emergency management for the Civil Protection Agency. Power outages were reported in Mexico City and in throughout Colima.


Colima resident Manuel Nestas looks over the damage done to his house by the earthquake.



Damage was also reported in the state of Michoacan, and the USGS warned on its Web site that the quake "may have caused substantial damage and casualties due to its location and size."

A man in Comala, seven miles north of the capital, Colima, said the quake was strong but lasted less than a minute. He said the electricity was out for a couple of hours and damage in his community was minor.

In Mexico City, buildings swayed, and residents gathered in the streets as a precaution. There were reported power outages in the city.

Police cars with lights flashing drove slowly through the streets of Mexico City asking residents over loudspeakers if they were OK, according to The Associated Press.

Some people had fled so quickly they had no shoes and had little more than blankets to protect them from the cold night air, the AP reported.

"I felt it very strongly and I saw all the people leave, very scared," Victor Morales, a 46-year-old apartment building superintendent in the Condesa neighborhood, told the AP. "I stayed calm because I trust in God."

"This is the largest earthquake in this general area since a magnitude 8.0 event on October 9, 1995," the U.S. Geological Survey said. "The 1995 earthquake killed at least 49 people and caused extensive damage in Colima and Jalisco."