Nicaragua Hit by Tidal Waves From Pacific Quake

A strong earthquake in the Pacific on Tuesday triggered tidal waves that washed away dozens of homes on Nicaragua’s western coast, killing at least 14 people and leaving at least two dozen missing.

The quake measured a magnitude of 7.0, according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. It hit in the early evening, and its epicenter was 75 miles southwest of Managua.

A survivor said two small islands off the coast of Corinto, about 50 miles northwest of Managua, were swept by six-foot waves that washed away at least 20 houses and left an undetermined number of people missing.

“I managed to get out in my boat. But one of my sons drowned,” Pablo Alfonso Pineda told radio reporters.

The Red Cross said it counted at least 14 dead in various communities and said at least 25 people were missing, including 12 fisherman lost at sea. It said more than 22 people were hospitalized with serious injuries.

Alejandro Morales, an earthquake specialist at the Institute of Earth Studies, said the temblor was one of the strongest in the country in 20 years.

The quake and two big aftershocks that followed set off the huge waves that washed over dozens of communities along the coast from San Juan del Sur, a city on the border with Costa Rica, to Corinto.

Pineda, who fled the island of Maderas Negras to Corinto in a small boat, told radio reporters that Maderas Negras and another small island, Monte Rolo, were washed over by one of the waves.

Pineda said at least 20 houses, most built of reed and thatch, washed away on Maderas Negras. He said many people were missing but could not estimate how many.

State radio said the sea had washed about 900 yards inland at Masachapa, a beach resort of about 2,000 people south of the capital. It said at least 12 fishermen were reported missing there.

The quake was felt strongly in Managua, but there were no immediate reports of damage in the capital.