March 21, 2012. Strong earthquake rattles central Mexico; no major damage reported

SOURCE:

Altegrity Risk International

A major earthquake struck Mexico on March 20th, unleashing panic as it damaged hundreds of buildings and caused homes in the capital to bounce. Office workers evacuated into the street when the 7.4 magnitude earthquake shook Mexico City for more than a minute. Cell phone lines went down and traffic was snarled. At least 11 people were injured, the Interior Ministry said. Electricity to the capital was temporarily cut off. The epicenter was near Ometepec, Guerrero state, where hundreds of homes were damaged. Mexico City's international airport was operating normally and only a couple of flights to the United States were temporarily grounded, a spokesman said.

Mexico's interior ministry said the country would remain on high alert for the next 24 hours after 18 aftershocks to the quake were registered. Some were above magnitude 5. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said some rails of the subway system moved as a result of the tremor while leaks at three aqueducts feeding the eastern portion of the capital would leave hundreds of thousands of homes with no water for at least a day.

In Oaxaca, 68 mud-brick houses were damaged and at least five people were injured, one of them seriously, in the area around the town of Pinotepa Nacional near the Pacific coast, local emergency services said.

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