Powerful quake kills at least 23 in Mexico

Mexico City -  President Vicente Fox declared a state of emergency today in Colima, one of two coastal states that was hit overnight by a powerful earthquake that rolled across central Mexico from the Pacific Ocean, killing at least 23 people and rattling millions in Mexico City.

Red Cross officials in Mexico City reported 21 deaths in Colima, where scores of homes were damaged or destroyed, and two more deaths in the neighboring state of Jalisco.

The quake struck at 8:07 p.m. local time (9:07 E.S.T.). Initial reports placed its intensity at either 7.6 or 7.8 on the Richter scale and its epicenter about 10 miles to sea from the port of Manzanillo.

Mexico's National Seismological Service recorded the earthquake at 7.6. The United States Geological Survey placed its intensity at 7.8, which would make it the second-strongest to have struck Mexico since 1985, when an 8.1 earthquake killed at least 10,000 people, caused $5 billion worth of damage and left 100,000 homeless in Mexico City.

In the capital, millions felt the quake, and many, remembering its deadly predecessor, fled to the streets. Some carried candles and suddenly useless cell phones. Power and telephone service were disrupted in Mexico City and in many other municipalities. But the quake, felt for about 45 seconds, caused no significant damage in the capital beyond racing pulses.

In Colima, one of Mexico's smallest states, about 300 miles due west of Mexico City, the story was different. Gov. Fernando Moreno Pena said today that most of the 21 deaths in his state were reported in the capital, also called Colima, where power outages continued through the night and into the morning as rescue crews poked through the rubble of several dozen collapsed residential and office buildings.

Colima, which is on the Pacific coast, suffered an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in 1995 that killed 49 people.

In Jalisco, to the north, last night's earthquake also took a toll: two reported deaths, a woman of 85 and a one-year-old girl in the town of Zapotitlan. In the state capital, Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city with about six million residents, at least 40 homes were damaged and 100 people left homeless, state officials said.

At least seven smaller earthquakes have struck the Pacific coast of Mexico in the last 10 days. Seismologists said Tuesday night's temblor was felt from the Pacific across the country to the Gulf of Mexico .-- New York Times

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