6.5 Quake Hits Near Acapulco
A strong earthquake rocked south-central Mexico on Monday, sending office workers 175 miles away in Mexico City running from shaking high-rise buildings.
“It felt like hell,” said Alfredo Olvera, a construction worker who fled from the unfinished 24th floor of the Mexican stock exchange.
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 and was centered on the Pacific coast of Guerrero state between the resort cities of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, according to the U.S. Geological Survey earthquake center in Golden, Colo.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries after the roughly two-minute temblor hit Monday afternoon, although some power and telephone outages were reported.
Earthquakes of that magnitude are capable of causing severe damage. Reports of damage are often slow to come in, especially from rural areas.
“For the first 15 seconds, we said to ourselves nothing was happening. Then everyone started running outside,” said Jaime Cantarell, manager of the Hotel Villa del Sol in Zihuatanejo.
“But it turned out to be just a scare,” Cantarell said.
An early warning system designed to give capital residents warning of earthquakes failed to function, as it often has.
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