Residents and rescue workers use heavy equipment to look for people feared buried at a sand mine, after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck in San Marcos, Guatemala, Wednesday Nov. 7, 2012. The mountain village, some 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the epicenter, suffered much of the damage with some 30 homes collapsing in its center. There are three confirmed dead and many missing after the strongest earthquake to hit Guatemala since a deadly 1976 quake that killed 23,000. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Powerful quake hits Guatemala, killing at least 48
Residents and rescue workers use heavy equipment to look for people feared buried at a sand mine, after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck in San Marcos, Guatemala, Wednesday Nov. 7, 2012. The mountain village, some 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the epicenter, suffered much of the damage with some 30 homes collapsing in its center. There are three confirmed dead and many missing after the strongest earthquake to hit Guatemala since a deadly 1976 quake that killed 23,000. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
By ROMINA RUIZ-GOIRIENA
Associated Press /
November 7, 2012
Text Size:
- –
- +
Page 2 of 2 --
David de Leon, spokesman for civil protection, told radio station Emisoras Unidas that officials were working on evacuations and relief. There were five strong aftershocks by Wednesday night.
Perez said 150 people had been evacuated by air from the San Marcos area, where 91 inmates, including five women, were huddled to one side of the adobe makeshift jail that had floor-to-ceiling cracks and threatened to collapse. Police told the prisoners they were to be moved.
‘‘We'd rather stay here and reconstruct the jail than be displaced. That will be hard for our families,’’ said inmate Benjamin Tomas Gomez.
The country’s minister of communications and infrastructure told Emisoras Unidas that landslides had blocked several highways in the west of the country, and it would take at least 24 hours to re-establish transport links to San Marcos.
A spokesman for El Salvador’s Red Cross branch told The Associated Press that the quake had been felt throughout the country, sending people fleeing their homes in the capital, but there had been no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage.
The mayor of Mexico City said no serious damage or injuries were reported in the city, although many people fled their offices and homes during the quake.
___
Associated Press writer Sonia Perez-Diaz reported this story in San Marcos and Romina Ruiz-Goiriena reported from Guatemala City.
© Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
