Just before midnight a massive earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale struck in south western Mexico about 60 miles off the coast of Chiapas state and approximately 100 miles north of the border with Guatemala. The quake, Mexico’s largest since 1985, was felt 460 miles away in Mexico City, where buildings shook for about a minute and the sky lit up as electrical transformers exploded.
Early reports spoke of extensive damage to homes, power outages, evacuations and reportedly the collapse of a shopping center. At the time of this report, 5 deaths had been attributed to the quake.
Tsunami waves of 2.3 feet were observed in Huatulco, a resort city in Mexico’s Oaxaca state, and 3.3 feet at Salina Cruz, according to the center. Tsunami alerts were issued to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, and the Mexico coast line. No tsunami alerts were issued for the United States.