Quakes Rock Central America, Puerto Rico; 1 Death Reported

A strong earthquake centered off the coast of El Salvador shook much of Central America on Thursday and sent terrified residents of this capital city streaming into the streets. At least one death and minor damage was reported.

A second strong earthquake struck Puerto Rico about six hours later, but an official said there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries on the Caribbean island.

In southern Mexico, residents of the coastal town of Tapachula thought the local volcano was erupting. Residents in Mexico City also reported feeling the temblor.

People Flood Streets

In San Salvador, where a 1986 quake killed 1,500 and injured 20,000, people flooded the streets in panic.

Thursday’s quake, which struck at 8:47 a.m., also was felt in Guatemala, where the National Emergency Committee went on alert, and to a lesser extent in Honduras and Nicaragua. A 1972 earthquake killed 10,000 people in Nicaragua and caused extensive damage to Managua, the capital.

Readings on the tremor varied. The U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said it measured 6.0 on the Richter scale and was centered in the Pacific Ocean about 60 miles off the coast of El Salvador. The Institute of Seismology at the University of Costa Rica said it measured 6.5 and that an aftershock registering 4.8 followed at 9:19 a.m.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 is capable of doing serious damage.

The Costa Rica institute said the quake ran along a fault line that stretches from Mexico to the border between Costa Rica and Panama and out into the Pacific Ocean.

In Guatemala City, the capital, a municipal worker digging a ditch was buried alive when the quake dislodged a pile of earth, police said.

Maj. Humberto Fuentes Soria of Guatemala’s National Emergency Committee said the temblor damaged 18 homes and cracked the walls of several public buildings in the western provinces of Totonicapan and Chimaltenango.

In Puerto Rico, the 3:42 p.m. quake measured 5.7 on the Richter scale, said William MacCann, director of the University of Puerto Rico’s Seismological Network. An aftershock measuring 4.0 followed, he said. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 5.5.

MacCann said it was the strongest quake to hit Puerto Rico since 1979, when a 5.9 temblor shook the island.

He said the quake’s epicenter was in the Atlantic Ocean near the extreme northwestern port city of Aguadilla, 80 miles west of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital.