Guatemalans spend a night on watch, after six earthquakes hit in single day*


Six earthquakes hit the tiny Central American nation of Guatemala
Monday, killing at least three people.


By Nic Wirtz, Contributor / September 20, 2011


Residents look on inside their damaged house after an earthquake in
Cuilapa, Guatemala, Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. Four earthquakes struck the
southeastern part of Guatemala in less than two hours Monday afternoon.


Rodrigo Abd/AP

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Tue, Sep. 20 2011 09:31 AM EDT
Six Earthquakes in a Row Hit Guatemala Leaving at Least 3 Dead
By Luiza Oleszczuk
At least three people have died and many are injured as a result of six quakes of a 5.8 magnitude that hit southern Guatemala Monday.

A number of people were reportedly injured while several buildings and at least a hundred houses were damaged, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said in a statement.

Colom, speaking at a press briefing, said that the worst damage took place in the city of Santa Rosa some 75 kilometers southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

A woman was reportedly buried by a landslide there and three people were reported missing.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the main quake hit at 12:34 local time at a depth of 39 kilometers, and was followed by a 4.8-magnitude quake 30 minutes later. A third, smaller tremor was registered later in the day, and three more followed.

The tremors have caused a number of mudslides in the Guatemalan highlands, where mountain slopes, saturated after weeks of rain from hurricane activity gave in to the quake, Xinhua reported.

Schools had suspended classes for the rest of the day as well as on Tuesday, while the emergency services are battling to restore power in the region and ensure that recent torrential rain combined with the earthquakes does not result in more landslides, according to Xinhua.

The rescue personnel were also monitoring the areas closest to the epicenter for possible survivors.

The earthquakes happened following a weekend of Independence Day celebrations.

The quakes were strong enough to break windows of high-rise buildings.

The main Pan American highway that connects Guatemala with the rest of Central America was blocked by landslides on several points, reported Xinhua.


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Guatemalans spend a night on watch, after six earthquakes hit in single day
Six earthquakes hit the tiny Central American nation of Guatemala Monday, killing at least three people.

By Nic Wirtz, Contributor / September 20, 2011

Antigua, Guatemala
Caroline Truttmann, a photographer and teacher, remained vigilant throughout the night after four earthquakes rocked Guatemala in about two hours Monday. Before she went to bed, another tremor with a magnitude of 4.6 struck at 10:28 p.m. local time, bringing the total to six for the day for residents throughout the country. “I have my flashlight, my water, my clothes. I’m prepared for the night,” Ms. Truttmann told the Monitor.

It was a rude shock for most Guatemalans as they returned to the grind following a weekend of Independence Day celebrations. Buildings shook in the capital and schools closed throughout the country as the midday quakes struck. The tremors provoked landslides in some areas. At least three were killed.

Emergency services are battling to restore power in the region and ensure that recent torrential rain combined with the earthquakes does not result in more landslides.

According to the US Geological Survey, the first earthquake, registered at a magnitude of 4.8, hit at 11:00 a.m. Within 33 minutes the largest
tremor at a magnitude of 5.8 hit, followed by two more at magnitudes 4.8 and 4.5 in a 2-1/2 hour span.

The quakes were centered along the southwestern coast of Guatemala, around Santa Rosa where a few people were reported dead after being buried in a landslide.

In Guatemala City’s dense urban zones the quakes were strong enough to break the windows of high-rise buildings and some schools, such as Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, closed early. In Santa Clara all schools were shut down as the National Commission for the Reduction of Disasters put the country on alert due to the increasing intensity of the quakes and possible aftershocks.

“It was scary. But thankfully, for me I was only scared,” says Truttmann. “The people worst off are those with the houses made of the poorest materials. The ones that can afford it the least.”


Schoolteacher Carmen Campos described the scene in her school. “Things got a little crazy because the kids didn't know what to do. We had to do the
earthquake procedure three times, where they wait underneath a table for 60 seconds.” The school closed in the early afternoon.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/0920/Guatemalans-spend-a-night-on-watch-after-six-earthquakes-hit-in-single-day