2 Big Quakes Hit Salvador; Loss Heavy

Two “violent” earthquakes struck El Salvador today. Reports said buildings fell, electricity was cut off and people were running through the streets in panic.

One caller to a radio station in Honduras said she saw nine bodies.

Telex and telephone communications were severed by the temblors, which were centered off the coast and were felt in Guatemala.

The Seismological Institute in Guatemala, where the temblors also were felt, said the quakes struck at 11:40 a.m. and 12:04 p.m.

“Our readings here said the first quake measured 5.2 on the Richter scale and it was followed by a quake measuring 4.5,” said Eddy Sanchez, deputy director of the institute. He said the epicenter appears to have been about 150 miles off the Pacific coast of El Salvador.

Phone Links Cut

Telephone and telex communications between Guatemala and El Salvador were broken off and repeated attempts to communicate with San Salvador from Mexico City also were unsuccessful.

But Salvadoran Vice President Rodolfo Castillo, interviewed by Colombia’s Radio Carocol, said, “A really violent earthquake has taken place in El Salvador. We don’t have at this moment any information about damages. There have been new tremblors and the people are scared.

“We are organizing efforts to get information about the tragedy,” he said, adding that in some places electrical lines were knocked down, leaving areas without power.

“I have gone through the center of the city and various houses and buildings have been affected,” he said. “Some houses have tumbled and some two- or three-story buildings were shaken, but we don’t have any information on the (total) number of people killed.”

Castillo said President Jose Napoleon Duarte, who was in the city of La Union in eastern El Salvador when the quake occurred, suspended his schedule and headed back to the capital.

Heavy Damage in Capital

The Spanish National Radio in Madrid reported damage was heavy in the capital.

Luis Marinas, Spain’s ambassador in El Salvador, told the radio that several buildings in San Salvador were destroyed.

Efe, the Spanish national news agency, said radio reports reaching Panama City from San Salvador indicated the Hotel San Salvador, the Ruben Dario cinema and a national monument had been destroyed.

A San Salvador-based reporter for Colombian radio RCN, reported that a stadium was toppled in the quake, various buildings were split apart and thousands of people ran into the streets crying in fear.

The U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., reported that just one earthquake, measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale, hit El Salvador about 10 miles from the capital, spokesman Don Finley said in Washington.