WORLD
Saturday, September 9, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 11A
Death toll rises to 61 in Mexico earthquake
By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — One
of the most powerful earth-
quakes ever recorded in
Mexico struck off the coun-
try’s southern coast, toppling
hundreds of buildings and
sending panicked people
fleeing into the streets in the
middle of the night. At least
61 people were reported dead.
The quake that hit minutes
before midnight Thursday
was strong enough to cause
buildings to sway violently in
the capital city more than 650
miles away. As beds banged
against walls, people still
wearing pajamas ran out of
their homes and gathered in
frightened groups.
Rodrigo Soberanes, who
lives near San Cristobal de
las Casas in Chiapas, the state
nearest the epicenter, said his
house “moved like chewing
gum.”
The furious shaking
created a second national
emergency for Mexican agen-
cies already bracing for Hurri-
cane Katia on the other side of
the country. The system was
expected to strike the Gulf
coast in the state of Veracruz
late Friday or early Saturday
as a Category 2 storm that
could bring life-threatening
floods.
President Enrique Pena
Nieto said Friday evening in
a televised address that 61
people were killed — 45 in
Oaxaca state, 12 in Chiapas
and 4 in Tabasco — and he
declared three days of national
mourning.
The worst-hit city was
Juchitan, on the narrow
waist of Oaxaca known as
the Isthmus, where 36 quake
victims died.
About half of Juchitan’s
city hall collapsed in a pile
of rubble and streets were
littered with the debris of
ruined houses. A hospital
also collapsed, Pena Nieto
said after touring the city and
meeting with residents. The
patients were relocated to
other facilities.
The president said author-
ities were working to re-es-
tablish the supply of water
and food and provide medical
attention to those who need
it. He vowed the government
would help people rebuild
and called for people to come
together.
“The power of this earth-
AP Photo/Luis Alberto Cruz
Soldiers remove debris from a partly collapsed municipal building felled by a mas-
sive earthquake in Juchitan, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Friday. One of the most powerful
earthquakes ever to strike Mexico has hit off its southern Pacific coast, killing at
least 32 people, toppling houses, government offices and businesses.
AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo
Residents walk past boats that were moved on land in
preparation for the expected arrival of Hurricane Katia,
in Tecolutla, Veracruz state, Mexico, Friday. Hurricane
Katia in the Gulf of Mexico is stationary north-north-
east of Veracruz and forecasters didn’t expect much
movement overnight.
quake was devastating, but
we are certain that the power
of unity, the power of soli-
darity and the power of shared
responsibility will be greater,”
Pena Nieto said.
Mexico City escaped
major damage, but the quake
terrified sleeping residents,
many of whom still remember
the catastrophic 1985 earth-
quake that killed thousands
and devastated large parts of
the city.
Families were jerked
awake by the grating howl of
the capital’s seismic alarm.
Some shouted as they dashed
out of rocking apartment
buildings. Even the iconic
Angel of Independence
Monument swayed as the
quake’s waves rolled through
the city’s soft soil.
Elsewhere, the extent of
destruction was still emerging.
Hundreds
of
buildings
collapsed or were damaged,
power was cut at least briefly
to more than 1.8 million
people and authorities closed
schools Friday in at least 11
states to check them for safety.
The Interior Department
reported that 428 homes were
destroyed and 1,700 were
damaged in various cities and
towns in Chiapas.
“Homes made of clay tiles
and wood collapsed,” said
Nataniel Hernandez, a human
rights worker living in Tonala,
Chiapas, who warned that
inclement weather threatened
to bring more down.
“Right now it is raining
very hard in Tonala, and with
the rains it gets much more
complicated because the
homes were left very weak,
with cracks,” Hernandez said
by phone.
The earthquake’s impact
was blunted somewhat by
the fact that it was centered
100 miles offshore. It hit off
Chiapas’ Pacific coast, near
the Guatemalan border, with
a magnitude of 8.1 — equal
to Mexico’s strongest quake
of the past century. It was
slightly stronger than the 1985
quake, the U.S. Geological
Survey said.
The epicenter was in a
seismic hotspot in the Pacific
where one tectonic plate dives
under another. These subduc-
tion zones are responsible for
producing some of the biggest
quakes in history, including
the 2011 Fukushima disaster
and the 2004 Sumatra quake
that spawned a deadly
tsunami.
The quake struck at 11:49
p.m. Thursday. Its epicenter
was 102 miles west of Tapa-
chula in Chiapas, with a depth
of 43.3 miles, the USGS said.
Dozens of strong after-
shocks rattled the region in
the following hours.
Three people were killed
in San Cristobal, including
two women who died when
a house and a wall collapsed,
Chiapas Gov. Manuel Velasco
said.
Irma bears down on Florida, 5M told to flee coast
MIAMI (AP) — Irma
trained its sights on Florida
and officials warned more
than 5 million people that time
was running out Friday to
evacuate ahead of the deadly
hurricane as it followed a path
that could take it from one end
of the state to the other.
By early evening, Irma was
a slightly weakened Category
4 storm with winds of 155
mph and forecasters said it
could be back up to Category
5 when it comes ashore near
Key West on Sunday morning.
Forecasters adjusted the
storm’s potential track more
toward the west coast of
Florida, away from the Miami
metropolitan area of 6 million
people, meaning “a less costly,
a less deadly storm,” Univer-
sity of Miami researcher Brian
McNoldy said.
Nevertheless, forecasters
warned that its hurricane-force
winds were so wide they
could reach from coast to
coast, testing the nation’s
third-largest state, which has
undergone rapid development
and more stringent hurri-
cane-proof building codes in
the last decade or so.
“This is a storm that will
kill you if you don’t get out of
the way,” National Hurricane
Center meteorologist Dennis
Feltgen said. “Everybody’s
going to feel this one.”
Irma killed at least 20
people in the Caribbean and
left thousands homeless as
it devastated small resort
islands known for their warm,
turquoise water.
In Florida, gas shortages
and gridlock plagued the
evacuations, turning normally
simple trips into tests of will.
Parts of interstates 75 and 95
north were bumper-to-bumper,
while very few cars drove on
the southbound lanes.
“We’re getting out of this
state,” said Manny Zuniga,
who left his home in Miami
at midnight Thursday to avoid
the gridlock. “Irma is going to
take all of Florida.”
Despite driving overnight,
“This is a storm
that will kill you if
you don’t get out
of the way. Ev-
erybody’s going
to feel this one.”
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— Dennis Feltgen,
National Hurricane Center
meteorologist
AP Photo/David Goldman
Ryan Kaye loads sandbags into his truck at a make-
shift filling station provided by the county as protec-
tion ahead of Hurricane Irma, Friday in Palm Coast, Fla.
he still took 12 hours to reach
Orlando — a trip that normally
takes four hours. From there,
he and his wife, two children,
two dogs and a ferret were
headed to Arkansas.
In one of the country’s
largest evacuations, about 5.6
million people in Florida —
more than one-quarter of the
state’s population — were
ordered to evacuate and
another 540,000 were told
to leave the Georgia coast.
Authorities opened hundreds
of shelters for people who
did not leave. Hotels as far
away as Atlanta filled up with
evacuees.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott
said people fleeing could drive
slowly in the shoulder lane on
highways. He hasn’t reversed
the southbound lanes because
he said they were needed to
deliver gas and supplies.
“If you are planning to
leave and do not leave tonight,
you will have to ride out this
extremely dangerous storm at
your own risk,” Scott said.
Tony Marcellus racked
his brain to figure out a way
to get his 67-year-old mother
and 85-year-old grandfather
out of their home five blocks
from the ocean in West Palm
Beach. He lives 600 miles
away in Atlanta. He checked
flights but found nothing and
rental cars were sold out, so he
settled on a modern method of
evacuation.
He hired an Uber to pick
them up and drive them 170
miles to Orlando, where he
met them to take them to
Atlanta. He gave the driver a
nice tip.
“I have peace of mind
now,” said Marcellus’ mother,
Celine Jean. “I’ve been
worried sick for days.”
Several
small,
poor
communities around Lake
Okeechobee in the south-cen-
tral part of Florida were added
to the evacuation list because
the lake may overflow — but
the governor said engineers
expect the protective dike to
hold up. Many people in the
area said they wouldn’t leave
because they either had no
transportation or nowhere to
go.
Disney World parks will
close early Saturday and
remain shuttered through
Monday, as will Universal
Orlando and Sea World.
Miami-Dade
County
Mayor Carlos Gimenez said
he planned for enough space
to hold 100,000 people before
the storm arrives, although
most shelters were only begin-
ning to fill on Friday.
Hurricane Andrew in 1992
revealed how lax building
codes had become in the coun-
try’s most storm-prone state,
and Florida began requiring
sturdier construction. Now,
experts say a monstrously
strong Irma could become the
most serious test of Florida’s
storm-worthiness since then.
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