Magnitude 7.2 earthquake slams Mexico’s Oaxaca state

A powerful, magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck south and central Mexico on Friday afternoon, damaging buildings and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets.

There were no immediate reports of deaths, but officials said some homes and businesses near the quake’s epicenter in Oaxaca state had been damaged.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake originated about 225 miles south of Mexico City, near the town of Pinotepa in Oaxaca state. A magnitude 5.9 aftershock also centered in Oaxaca struck about an hour later.

Local media reports out of Oaxaca showed a partially collapsed hotel and other buildings with partially collapsed roofs or walls split open by deep fissures. The Oaxaca state government said via Twitter the worst damage was in the towns of Pinotepa and Santiago Jamiltepec, and said shelters were opened for those fleeing their homes.

In the nation’s capital, buildings swayed and minor damage was reported, but Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the city was mostly unscathed.

Many residents, still shaken from the Sept. 19 earthquake that killed more than 360 people, lingered in the streets instead of returning to their office buildings and homes.

“We’re totally traumatized,” said Maria Eugenia Angulo, 48, who was eating ice cream with her children and grandchildren in the leafy Condesa neighborhood when the earth started swaying.

About 30 seconds before the earthquake struck, a warning alarm rang throughout Mexico City. Mexico is one of several countries that have implemented early earthquake warning systems designed to give residents crucial time to prepare before the earth starts shaking. California has been developing its own warning system, but President Trump’s recent budget proposal would end funding for the program.

Friday’s earthquake occurred in a seismically active section of Mexico, where the Cocos plate is sliding underneath the North American plate.

Its epicenter was about 140 miles southeast of the origin of the Sept. 19 earthquake and 275 miles northwest of the origin of a magnitude 8.1 quake that struck Sept. 7, killing nearly 100 people in Oaxaca and the neighboring state of Chiapas.

U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jana Pursley said Friday’s earthquake was not related to either of September’s temblors.

Damage near the epicenter was a given, Pursley said.

“It’s a strong earthquake,” she said. “In the immediate area, it is likely to cause damage.”

Oaxaca Gov. Alejandro Murat said in a television interview that 100,000 residents had lost power across the state and that some buildings had been damaged but no deaths had been reported. In Juchitan, the area hardest hit in the Sept. 7 quake, “no serious damage is reported so far,” he said.

That the damage wasn’t more severe came as a great relief to earthquake-wary Mexicans — as well as vacationers.

Ricky Pierce, a Houston man staying at Mexico City’s Buenavista Holiday Inn, was on the fourth floor when the quake struck.

“I felt like I was on a boat in rough water,” said Pierce, who was briefly evacuated.

A crowd gathers outside the Holiday Inn on Insurgentes Avenue in Mexico City after the earthquake, centered 225 miles south.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times )

Times staff writers Rong-Gong Lin II in San Francisco and Chris Reynolds and Cecilia Sanchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

7:35 p.m.: This report was updated to say an alarm sounded in Mexico City before the quake.

6:55 p.m.: This report has been updated for additional quotes and details.

This was originally posted at 4:10 p.m.