A powerful 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Panama on Friday, sending people running out of buildings and triggering a hazardous tsunami alert covering nine countries across Central and South America. Within hours, video showed a cathedral collapsing in one town, yet early reports spoke of no immediate casualties.
A warning across nine countries
The alert came from Tsunami.gov, which said that based on preliminary details of the quake, "widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible." The warning listed Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. The U.S. Tsunami Warning System said dangerous waves could arrive within three hours.
The National Weather Service also issued its own warning for the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. The epicenter was about 120 miles from Panama City, the capital, which sits beside the famous Panama Canal, an artificial waterway. Witnesses in the city said they felt the shaking.
Shaking, evacuations and fear
The Institute of Geosciences of the University of Panama said the quake hit just before 1 p.m. local time, near the town of Tonosí. Television footage showed people hurrying out of buildings. Local newspaper La Prensa reported that homes, schools and other buildings across the country were emptied after what it called a "powerful movement of the earth."
Aftershocks followed quickly, with some reaching magnitude 5.5. In Panama City, visibly shaken residents gathered outside to wait for news.
Rosendo Domínguez, 60, from Herrera province, where the quake struck, spoke to The Associated Press by phone. "We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen, but we’re okay, though we’re very scared," he said. "Everyone is outside, scared."
Damage in the central provinces
Omar Smith of the National Civil Protection Service told the Telemetro Reporta news channel that the damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera and Los Santos. He said nothing had been reported in the capital, a city known for its hundreds of skyscrapers.
The most striking pictures came from Penonomé, in the central province of Coclé. Video broadcast by local news outlets showed a Catholic cathedral collapsing. Another clip showed part of a hotel’s facade falling onto a car. No casualties were immediately reported, and Reuters said there were no early reports of damage in Panama more broadly.
Calls for calm
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino urged people to stay calm. Writing on X, he said: "What happened should not be used to cause alarm or disorder."
Panama lies along the "Ring of Fire," a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin, where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.
How things stand
As the day went on, Panama’s Civil Protection service said it was still investigating possible damage in the regions closest to the epicenter. With aftershocks still shaking the streets and a tsunami alert in force across nine countries, many people were waiting outdoors for word on what the quake had left behind.
Image credit: earthquake.usgs.gov
Source: Daily Express US
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