Strong Quakes Frighten Mexico City; No Serious Damage Noted

A series of earthquakes shook Mexico City early Wednesday, causing tall buildings to sway and sending hundreds of residents--the memory of year’s devastating quakes fresh in their minds--into the streets for safety. No serious damage or injuries were reported.

The first quake began at 1:10 a.m., lasted about a minute and registered 6.5 on the Richter scale here, according to Mexican officials. Two shorter, less intensive shocks occurred about an hour later.

However, the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said the main quake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale. There was no immediate explanation for the disparity in Richter readings.

Epicenter Off Coast

The epicenter was about 250 miles off Jalisco state on the Pacific Coast, Mexican officials said.

The quakes also rocked the Pacific Coast states of Guerrero, Colima, Jalisco and Michoacan, according to Red Cross officials in each state. The area includes the cities of Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta.

In Mexico City, tourists in pajamas and blankets emptied out of hotels to spend part of the night on sidewalks. Windows broke in some scattered buildings, plaster fell in offices, power went out in at least four neighborhoods and a few gas leaks and power outages occured.

Ambulances patrolled several neighborhoods searching for injured people. The Red Cross reported that medics treated 65 cases of what they described as nerves.

September Quakes

The temblors were the strongest registered here since a pair of powerful earthquakes stunned the capital last Sept. 19 and 20. Those quakes, measuring 8.1 and 7.5 on the Richter Scale, left at least 7,000 dead.

The ruins of many of the structures that collapsed in September have been dismantled, leaving empty spaces in the crowded Mexico City landscape. Other damaged buildings have been repaired. The fix-up has not, however, erased memories of the disaster that were revived by Wednesday’s quakes.

“I thought ‘Here it comes again,’ ” said Jorge Villanueve, who ushered his wife and two small children out of an apartment in the Roma neighborhood of the city. “We weren’t going to stay inside, no way.”

Roma was one of the neighborhoods hard hit last September. Wednesday’s quakes knocked out power in Roma, along with other centrally located neighborhoods known as the First Quadrant, Guerrero and Doctores.

Abandon Apartments

Hundreds of families living in the Tlatelolco government housing project abandoned their apartments. Tlatelolco was the scene of one of the most devastating of last September’s tragedies--the collapse of an entire apartment block that housed hundreds of families.

The government’s housing authority said that inspectors will check Tlatelolco buildings, which are especially susceptible to earthquake damage because they stand on soft ground.

Hotel managers offered coffee, brandy and tequila to calm guests who fled to the street.

“It was like a kick in the butt,” said Miguel Angel Duran, a guest on the fifth floor of the Hotel Century. “I ran right down.”

Military reports from the West Coast said all was calm. Rumors that a volcano near the town of Colima was coming to life proved unfounded.