Deadly quake shakes Mexico
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The Mexican government dispatched small aircraft to remote areas of the country Wednesday to assess damage after a powerful earthquake killed as many as 23 people, injured 160 and caused widespread destruction.
At least 21 people died in the coastal state of Colima, said Fernando Moreno Pena, Colima's governor. Mexican officials said two others died in the state of Jalisco. (Map)
The government said the exact death toll won't be known until later Wednesday.
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, put the quake's magnitude at 7.8, but the National Seismological Center in Mexico City calculated a magnitude of 7.6.
The Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Pacific Coast around Colima, about 30 miles east-southeast of the city of Manzanillo. It struck Tuesday at 8:06 p.m. local time (9:06 p.m. EST). The agency initially reported a magnitude of 7.3 but revised the number after additional calculations.
An earthquake with a magnitude of more than 7.0 is capable of widespread and heavy damage.
The quake was felt more than 300 miles away in the capital, Mexico City.
Damage had been reported in the states of Colima, Michoacan and Jalisco, and the quake "may have caused substantial damage and casualties due to its location and size," the U.S. Geological Survey Web site said.
Residents throughout Colima reported power outages. Landslides had knocked out utilities in some areas, said Carlos Gelista, Mexico's director of emergency management for the Civil Protection Agency.
A man in Comala, seven miles north of the capital, Colima, said the quake was strong but lasted less than a minute. He said the electricity was out for a couple of hours and damage in the community was minor.
In Mexico City, buildings swayed, and residents gathered in the streets as a precaution. There were reported power outages in the city.
Colima resident Manuel Nestas looks over the damage done to his house by the earthquake.
Police cars with lights flashing drove slowly through the streets of Mexico City asking residents over loudspeakers if they were OK, according to The Associated Press.
Some people had fled so quickly they had no shoes and had little more than blankets to protect them from the cold night air, the AP reported.
"I felt it very strongly and I saw all the people leave, very scared," Victor Morales, a 46-year-old apartment building superintendent in the Condesa neighborhood, told the AP. "I stayed calm because I trust in God."
"This is the largest earthquake in this general area since a magnitude 8.0 event on October 9, 1995," the U.S. Geological Survey said. "The 1995 earthquake killed at least 49 people and caused extensive damage in Colima and Jalisco."