Quake kills 52 in Guatemala
Source: Agencies |
November 9, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
The death toll in the worst Guatemala earthquake since 1976 rose yesterday to 52 people, with many of the 22 still missing expected to be among the dead, according to President Otto Perez Molina.
Perez said the powerful 7.4-magnitude quake that hit on Wednesday morning off the Pacific coast affected as many as 1.2 million people as it shook nearly the entire country. He said a little more than 700 people were in shelters, with most opting to stay with family or friends.
"They have no drinking water, no electricity, no communication and are in danger of experiencing more aftershocks," Perez told a news conference. The president said there had been 70 aftershocks in the first 24 hours after the quake, some as strong as magnitude 4.9.
Damaged homes will be among the biggest problems the country will face in the coming days, Perez added.
Guatemalans fearing aftershocks huddled in the streets of the mountain town of San Marcos, the most affected area, where at least 40 people died. Others crowded inside its hospital, the only building left with electricity.
More than 90 rescue workers continued to dig with backhoes at a half-ton mound of sand at a quarry trying to rescue seven people. "We started rescue work very early," said Julio Cesar Fuentes of the municipal fire department. "The objective is our hope to find people who were buried."
Residents venturing outside into the morning cold found the city paralyzed and businesses closed.
In the town of San Cristobal Cochu, firefighters picked at a collapsed house trying to dig out 10 members of one family, including a four-year-old child, who were buried, fire department spokesman Ovidio Perez told the radio station Emisoras Unidas.
Volunteers carrying boxes of medical supplies began arriving in the area in western Guatemala late on Wednesday.
The quake caused terror over an unusually wide area, with damage reported in all but one of Guatemala's 22 states and shaking felt as far away as Mexico City, 965 kilometers to the northwest.
In San Marcos, more than 30 homes were damaged and many of the colorful adobe buildings in its center were either cracked or reduced to rubble, including the police station and the courthouse.
Perez said the powerful 7.4-magnitude quake that hit on Wednesday morning off the Pacific coast affected as many as 1.2 million people as it shook nearly the entire country. He said a little more than 700 people were in shelters, with most opting to stay with family or friends.
"They have no drinking water, no electricity, no communication and are in danger of experiencing more aftershocks," Perez told a news conference. The president said there had been 70 aftershocks in the first 24 hours after the quake, some as strong as magnitude 4.9.
Damaged homes will be among the biggest problems the country will face in the coming days, Perez added.
Guatemalans fearing aftershocks huddled in the streets of the mountain town of San Marcos, the most affected area, where at least 40 people died. Others crowded inside its hospital, the only building left with electricity.
More than 90 rescue workers continued to dig with backhoes at a half-ton mound of sand at a quarry trying to rescue seven people. "We started rescue work very early," said Julio Cesar Fuentes of the municipal fire department. "The objective is our hope to find people who were buried."
Residents venturing outside into the morning cold found the city paralyzed and businesses closed.
In the town of San Cristobal Cochu, firefighters picked at a collapsed house trying to dig out 10 members of one family, including a four-year-old child, who were buried, fire department spokesman Ovidio Perez told the radio station Emisoras Unidas.
Volunteers carrying boxes of medical supplies began arriving in the area in western Guatemala late on Wednesday.
The quake caused terror over an unusually wide area, with damage reported in all but one of Guatemala's 22 states and shaking felt as far away as Mexico City, 965 kilometers to the northwest.
In San Marcos, more than 30 homes were damaged and many of the colorful adobe buildings in its center were either cracked or reduced to rubble, including the police station and the courthouse.
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