Panama Quake

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday. Buildings collapsed. Residents poured into the streets nationwide.

The USGS placed the epicenter near Pitaloza Arriba in Herrera province, at a depth of 10 kilometers, the Associated Press reported. CBC News put the spot roughly 200 kilometers from Panama City, in a sparsely populated area. HuffPost reported that the USGS first logged the quake at magnitude 8 before revising it down to 7.6, then 7.7. A second quake measured 6.6.

Tremors reached Panama City and were felt in neighboring Colombia, the Associated Press reported. More than 40 aftershocks followed, CBC News reported, among them quakes measuring 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2, according to HuffPost, which said seismologists at the University of Panama logged more than 45 in total.

In Penonomé, about 150 kilometers from the capital, the bell tower of St. John the Baptist Cathedral came down, the Associated Press reported. HuffPost reported further damage there, to the governor's office building and the Dos Continentes hotel. Cracks in the cathedral too, after a partial collapse. Local outlets, cited by HuffPost, said the colonial-era Church of San Atanasio in Los Santos province also fell. Omar Smith of the National Civil Protection Service told Telemetro Reporta that several people were hurt, including one struck by debris in Penonomé. None reported in the capital, he added.

President José Raúl Mulino said no deaths had been confirmed as of Friday evening, HuffPost reported, though he warned the toll could rise. "Nobody was ready, and no one is ever ready for this type of disaster," Mulino said, after calling for calm earlier in the day. Mulino later traveled to Penonomé to view the damage, CBC News reported.

Nestor Luque, director of Panama's geosciences institute, blamed the quake on pressure built up along the Azuero Sona Fault System, CBC News reported.

Tocumen International Airport briefly suspended flights before reopening Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. Canal operations continued normally, the Panama Canal Authority said.

The quake joins a string of disasters in the region. Two earthquakes killed more than 6,500 people in Venezuela's La Guaira state in June, and an August quake in Colombia killed at least 289, HuffPost reported. Panama's lower death toll may reflect the country's strict building codes, said Carlos Valdés of Mexico's National Autonomous University. A 1991 magnitude 7.4 quake, centered in Costa Rica, was Panama's last major temblor. It killed 23 people.

The USGS estimated Panama's economic losses could reach 1 to 10 percent of its gross domestic product, CBC News reported.