UPDATE: Strong Quake, After Shocks Kill at Least 20 in Peru
Pastor Dale Morgan
Aug 15, 11:03 PM EDT
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UPDATE: Strong Quake, After Shocks Kill at Least 20 in Peru*
By LESLIE JOSEPHS
Associated Press Writer
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- A powerful earthquake shook Peru's coast near the
capital on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people as it toppled homes and
caused many residents to flee buildings. Authorities said the quake had
generated a tsunami of undetermined size.
Peru's highly respected Cable news station Canal N reported that the 7.9
magnitude quake had caused a church to collapse in the city of Ica south
of Lima, killing at least 20 people and injuring 70.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a
tsunami warning for the coasts of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa
Rica and Panama. A tsunami watch was issued for the rest of Central
America and Mexico. It also issued a tsunami advisory for Hawaii.
The center later canceled the warnings and the watches, but it said the
quake had caused a tsunami of unknown size.
"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated," the center said
on its Web site. It did not report the tsunami's size, but said it could
be large enough to "be destructive" on coastal areas near the quake's
epicenter.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake hit at 6:40 p.m. (7:40
p.m. EDT) about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of about 25 miles.
Four strong aftershocks ranging from magnitudes of 5.4 to 5.9 were felt
afterwards, the USGS said.
An Associated Press photographer said that homes had collapsed in the
center of Lima and that many people had fled into the streets for
safety. The capital shook for more than a minute.
Firefighters quoted in radio reports said that many street lights and
windows shattered in Lima but did not specify if there were any
injuries. Hundreds of workers were evacuated from Lima office buildings
after the quake struck and remained outside, fearing aftershocks
Callers to Radioprogramas, Peru's main news radio station, said parts of
several cities in southern Peru had been hit with blackouts. Callers
reported homes in poor neighborhoods in Chincha and Cerro Azul had
collapsed.
The quake also knocked out telephone service and mobile phone service in
the capital. Firefighters were called to put out a fire in a shopping
center. State doctors called off a national strike that began on
Wednesday to handle the emergency.
Alex Kouri president of the Callao region, which includes the port of
Callao, adjacent to Lima, urged residents to remain calm in the face of
any possible tsunami, while other officials told Radioprograms they were
going to evacuate La Punta, a Callao neighborhood, because of the
potential threat of a tsunami.
In Colombia, President Alvaro Uribe ordered the partial evacuation of
the southern city of Tumaco in response to the warning.
In a press conference, Uribe said residents living along the coastal
areas of Tumaco, Colombia's southernmost city near the border with
Ecuador, should immediately move to higher ground as a preventive
measure in case a tsunami strikes.
"The reports we received about a possible tsunami are contradictory so
we've asked that, according to emergency disaster plans, authorities
immediately begin the partial evacuation of Tumaco," said Uribe.
The last time a quake of magnitude 7.0 or larger struck Peru's central
coast was in 1974 when a magnitude 7.6 hit in October followed by a 7.2
a month later.
The latest Peru quake occurred in a subduction zone where one section of
the Earth's crust dives under another, said USGS geophysicist Dale Grant
at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
Some of the world's biggest quakes strike in subduction zones including
the catastrophic Indian Ocean temblor in 2004 that generated deadly
tsunami waves.
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Associated Press writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this
report.