7.2 quake cuts power and damages homes

The prolonged 7.2 magnitude quake that rocked Mexico on Friday afternoon left nearly a million homes and businesses without power in the capital and south.

At least 50 homes suffered damage in the southern state of Oaxaca , which, along with Mexico City , is still reeling from earthquakes that caused widespread damage in September .

The epicenter was about 11 km South from Pinotepa Nacional in the southern state of Oaxaca and had a depth of 12 km, according to the National Seismology Service .

The Oaxacan town of Jamiltepec appeared to sustain the heaviest impact in the southern region, with 50 homes damaged along with a church and government building while in the town of Pinotepa Nacional a hospital was damaged and a collapsed structure blocked a major highway, the state’s civil protection agency said.

Authorities said no deaths directly linked to the quake had been reported nationally, however at least thirteen people died when a helicopter crashed while trying to land after a tour of damage from the earthquake, officials said.

The military helicopter carried Mexico’s Interior Minister Jesús Alfonso Navarrete Prida and the governor of the southern state of Oaxaca Alejandro Murat Hinojosa , but the senior officials survived.

Overall, about 100,000 people in Oaxaca had lost power , the state’s governor said.

In Guerrero , patients were evacuated from a hospital there and from another in the nearby town of Putla Villa de Guerrero . On a local highway, a fire ignited when two high-tension electric cables struck each other.

In Mexico City , the seismic alarm sounded 72 seconds before tremors were felt, Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera said, giving residents time to flee to the streets.

National oil firm Pemex said its installations were in order, including its biggest refinery 386 km from the epicenter.

The Popocatépetl volcano south of the capital sent a kilometer-high column of ash into the sky, said Mexico’s disaster prevention agency.

The powerful, sustained shaking on Friday gave way to 389 aftershocks by Saturday morning, the National Seismology Service said, and caused widespread panic.

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