Disasters & Accidents

No damage noted after 5.7-magnitude Mexico earthquake

Veracruz, Mexico, Mar 3 (EFE).- Mexican authorities have not detected any material damage or victims after the magnitude 5.7 earthquake that hit the eastern and central parts of the country on Thursday and which activated a seismic alert.

Although the quake was strongly felt in the city of Xalapa, the capital of the eastern coastal state of Veracruz, and in the tourist zone of the port of Veracruz-Boca del Rio, there have been no reports of damage to urban or strategic infrastructure and no known injuries.

After the quake shook public buildings and schools, personnel from the state’s Civil Protection and Public Safety service began moving through the area but did not find that any strategic or urban installations had been damaged.

“After the preliminary monitoring due to the temblor, which the National Seismological Service said had its epicenter in Isla, Veracruz, we are reporting that so far there have been no new relevant incidents. There have been no effects and monitoring is continuing,” Veracruz Gov. Cuitlahuac Garcia said.

The governor said that there had been no damage to either the hydroelectric plants or the nuclear facilities in the region.

Shortly after the quake, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said on Twitter that there had been no effects in the capital, adding that all earthquake protocols had been activated.

Meanwhile, Alejandro Murat, the governor of Oaxaca, a state which borders on Veracruz, also reported that so far “no damage” had been reported.

The seismic alert obligated Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to temporarily suspend his daily press conference at the National Palace.

“Fortunately, no serious damage from the quake is being reported for the moment,” the president said when the press conference resumed.

The quake was felt very slightly in the capital, according to the National Seimological Service.

“Earthquake magnitude 5.7 located 14 kilometers north of Isla, in Veracruz,” the NSS said, after originally reporting the quake as being a 6.2-magnitude event.

The temblor occurred at 8:40 am and activated the seismic alert system in the capital and across a large portion of the country, spurring thousands of people to temporarily evacuate the buildings where they had been.

A 7.1 magnitude quake occurred on Sept. 7, 2021, with its epicenter very close to Acapulco, where it caused some material damage.

In mid-2020, a 7.4 magnitude quake killed about a dozen people and injured around 20 in the southern state of Oaxaca.

In 2017, 471 people died in Mexico in three separate quakes on Sept. 7, 19 and 23, the worst natural disaster in the country since the devastating 1985 earthquake, which killed thousands in the capital.

EFE

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