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Strong earthquake rocks
US-Mexico border area:
An
earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale hit the Mexican
peninsula of Baja California Sunday afternoon, the US Geological
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Mexico City:
Two people have been killed and 233 injured in the 7.2 magnitude
earthquake that hit the northwestern Mexican state of Baja
California, the state’s governor said Monday.
Most of the damage in the earthquake that occurred Sunday was
concentrated around Mexicali, a city of nearly 1 million people that
serves as the state capital, Governor Jose Guadalupe Osuna told
Televisa.
One person was killed when a house collapsed during the earthquake
Sunday in Colonia Nueva, a town in the Mexicali Valley, about 18
kilometers from the temblor’s epicentre, Baja California emergency
management office director Alfredo Escobedo said.
The other fatality occurred when a wall collapsed in the capital’s
downtown, the governor said.
Irrigation ditches used to water some 60,000 hectares (148,148
acres) of crops were damaged in the Mexicali Valley, but federal
officials have already dispatched heavy machinery to “re-channel the
water into the canals,” Osuna said.
Power outages and problems with the telephone system have made
casualty and damage assessment difficult, especially in Mexicali.
There are “problems with the hospital infrastructure,” with some
patients being treated out in the open or under tarps, the governor
said.
The powerful earthquake hit around 5.40 p.m. Sunday and has been
followed so far by 35 aftershocks that were felt from Southern
California to the neighboring state of Sonora.
The quake knocked down power lines, toppled telephone poles, knocked
out cell sites and damaged houses, the secretariat said.
The Mexicali-Tecate highway was damaged by the earthquake, but
officials have not yet assessed the extent of the damage.
Baja California state officials established four shelters for quake
victims and cancelled classes and sporting events Monday in Mexicali.
Osuna said he planned to ask the federal government Monday to
declare Mexicali a disaster area so Natural Disaster Fund resources
could be released.
Power should be restored during the day to most of the areas
affected by the temblor, state electric utility spokesman Estefano
Conde said Monday.
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