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Two killed, scores injured in Mexican earthquake

05 April 2010 17:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Mexican authorities dispatched engineers to check damaged houses and buildings Monday in Baja California state following a major earthquake Sunday that left two people dead, APA reports quoting CNN.
The Federal Electricity Commission was also working to restore power in the city of Mexicali, state-run news agency Notimex reported.
The 7.2-magnitude quake struck northwest Baja California Sunday, rattling parts of California and Arizona as well. It was the largest in the Baja California and Southern California area since 1992, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
At least one person was killed in a building collapse in Mexicali, Mexico, according to Alan Sandoval, Tijuana’s assistant director of civil protection.
The other victim died when he ran from his residence into the street and was hit by a car, said Alfredo Escobedo, Baja state’s director of civil protection.
iReport: Did you feel the quake? Share photos and video
More than 140 people were treated at local hospitals, including five who were in critical condition, said Rigaberto Lasoya, medical coordinator for the state of Baja. Some were being treated outside because there’s no electricity and water at the main hospital, Lasoya said.
All injuries are concentrated in Mexicali, officials said.
In California and Arizona, there were no immediate reports of injuries and only limited reports of damages.
The quake struck at 3:40 p.m. (6:40 p.m. ET) about 110 miles east-southeast of Tijuana, Mexico, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Pictures from Mexicali, a major metropolitan area and the capital of Mexico’s Baja California state, showed sides ripped off buildings, telephone poles toppled, roads cracked and supermarket aisles strewn with food that had fallen off shelves.
The entire city lost power, Sandoval said.
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Residents across Southern California and Arizona reported serious ground shakes.
"We have not felt a shake like that since about 1979," Michelle Tapia told CNN from Brawley, California, approximately 23 miles north of the Mexican border.
iReport.com: Pots clang in San Diego, California, home
Joe Madison was shopping at a Wal-Mart in Palm Springs, California, when he felt the earthquake.
"I felt the entire store move, and people went running for the exits," he said.
Madison said people gathered outside in the parking lot until the shaking stopped.
"We felt it for about 30 seconds. It was rolling," San Diego County sheriff’s Lt. Scott Ybarrondo told CNN. "Nothing fell off the walls here, but we have reports of pictures falling off walls elsewhere in the county."
The quake was the largest in the Baja California area since 1992, the USGS reported.
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The 1992 quake, which struck in Landers, California, triggered an earthquake the next day in Nevada and another quake 11 days later in Southern California, according to USGS seismologist Lucy Jones. Both were 5.7 magnitude quakes.
Jones said Sunday’s quake also could trigger others in the coming days, though she said the relatively quiet hours after Sunday’s quake make other big quakes less likely.
There have been three large aftershocks so far, including one that registered a 5.5 magnitude, and other smaller temblors, USGS said.
Chandeliers swung and water sloshed around in swimming pools in the Los Angeles suburbs, witnesses reported, while posters to Twitter reported feeling the quake in Phoenix, Arizona.
Capt. Steve Ruda, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city fire department, said there were isolated power outages and a few people reported trapped in elevators, but no injuries or structural damage were reported.
Nine minutes after the Mexico quake, a magnitude 4.1 quake rattled windows in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco. No damage was reported there, and Susan Potter, a USGS geophysicist, told CNN that was a separate quake from the one that struck in the Baja California desert.
The USGS initially reported that the Baja California quake had a 6.9 magnitude. The USGS upgraded the quake about an hour later.