https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...surveying-earthquake-damage-crashes-in-mexico
13 Die After Helicopter Surveying Earthquake Damage Crashes In Mexico
February 17, 20181:32 PM ET
Amy Held
Students sit in an open area after their school was evacuated in Veracruz, Mexico, on Friday, following a magnitude 7.2 earthquake. Later Friday 13 people died after a helicopter surveying the damage near the epicenter crashed.
Felix Marquez/AP
Thirteen people died and 15 were injured Friday night after a military helicopter carrying government officials assessing earthquake damage crashed in southern Mexico,
said the Oaxaca state prosecutor's office.
Five women, four men and three children died at the scene and another person died later at the hospital, according to the prosecutor's office said.
All of the victims had been on the ground, reports The Associated Press. Details of the casualties are still unclear.
The helicopter was carrying Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca State Governor Alejandro Murat, who were both reportedly unharmed.
It was attempting to land in a vacant lot in the town of Santiago Jamiltepec when the pilot appeared to lose control, witnesses said.
Both Murat and Navarrete tweeted their sympathy early Saturday to the victims of the crash.
Hours earlier, both men tweeted photos of themselves being briefed by a military official.
Navarrete said they were about to begin a tour of the area affected by the quake.
Around 5:30 p.m. local time, a 7.2 magnitude temblor hit south and central Mexico, apparently causing no death and little destruction, but rattling a region still jittery from a September quake that killed
more than 200 people.
NPR's Carrie Kahn reported from the capital Mexico City that she felt Friday's earthquake "pretty strong."
"You could just feel the whole floor move from out from under you," she said. "And everybody was out in the streets in my neighborhood and looking up at this eight-story building that was right next to us, just swaying back and forth."
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Hope, Despair Descend On Quake-Shattered School In Mexico City
The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was located about 23 miles from Pinotepa de Don Luis in Oaxaca state.
Fifty homes in nearby Santiago Jamiltepec suffered major damage in the quake, as did the city hall and main church, said the Interior Department in a statement.
Later Friday, Santiago Jamiltepec also became the site of the deadly crash.
Mexican newspaper Milenio published a video of the crash's aftermath, showing crowds milling about a dusty lot and at least one body lying on the ground.
Milenio YouTube
Jorge Rosales, a reporter aboard the helicopter, spoke to a local television news station about the terrifying moment the pilot lost control.
"The moment the helicopter touched down it lost control, it slid — like it skidded — and it hit some vehicles that were stationed in the area," he said, according to an AP translation. "In that moment, you couldn't see anything, nothing else was heard besides the sound that iron makes when it scrapes the earth."
The Two-Way
Hope, Despair Descend On Quake-Shattered School In Mexico City
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto
expressed his condolences to the families of those killed and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...th-central-us-geological-survey-a8215011.html
Mexico earthquake: Two dead as powerful 7.2 magnitude quake strikes south and central parts of country
Video shows lightbulbs swinging and residents fleeing their homes
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Two dead as 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Mexico
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Two people are dead and a million homes and businesses are without power after a prolonged earthquake struck Mexico on Friday, just months after a pair of deadly quakes pummelled parts of the country last year.
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The 7.2-magnitude quake struck at 5:39pm local time, making buildings sway and sending people running into the street. The epicentre was a southern, surfer town on the Pacific Coast, according to the US Geological Survey. but tremors were felt as far away as Guatemala.
At least two people died when a helicopter carrying Mexico's interior minister and the governor of Oaxaca crashed while trying to land after a tour of damage from the earthquake, officials said. The senior officials survived.
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Authorities said no deaths directly linked to the quake had been reported nationally.
Emergency warning systems were activated in
Mexico City, some 348 kilometers (216 miles) from the centre of the quake. The seismic alarm sounded 72 seconds before tremors were felt, Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said, giving residents time to flee to the streets.
Footage posted on social media showed lights swinging from ceilings in a shaking building in the city, while other videos showed people fleeing outside from their trembling offices. Buildings were seen swaying for more than a minute after the alarms sounded.
Video posted by a
Washington Post reporter showed crowds of people standing calmly in a central Mexico City square, waiting for the rumblings to pass. Crowds of people also gathered on the streets in Oaxaca state's capital, closer to the epicentre of the quake, which hit 37 kilometres north-east of the coastal town of Pinotepa de Don Luis.
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Patricia Gutierrez, a 66-year-old English teacher, told Reuters she was taking a nap with her 11-month-old granddaughter, when she heard the alarm.
"She recognised the sound. When I opened my eyes, I saw her eyes in terror," Ms Gutierrez said of her granddaughter. "Her eyes were wide, like plates. She didn't say anything."
Secretary of the Interior Alfonso Navarrete tweeted that Oaxaca, Chiapas, Michoacán, Puebla and Mexico City had not reported any major damages thus far. Mexican Civil Protection chief Luis Felipe Fuente also said that there were no immediate reports of major damages from Friday's quake.
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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said the National Civil Protection system protocols had been activated, and the Oaxaca state civil protection agency tweeted that it was monitoring the coastline. No tsunami threat was detected, according to the US National Weather Service, but the Popocatepetl volcano south of the capital sent a kilometre-high column of ash into the sky, said Mexico's disaster prevention agency.
The Mexico City Government reminded residents via Twitter to check for damage, close gas valves, and disconnect energy sources when returning home. National oil firm Pemex said its installations were in order, including its biggest refinery 240 miles (386 km) from the epicentre.
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, the state's civil protection agency said.
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.
About 100,000 people in Oaxaca had lost power, the state's governor said.
Guadalupe Martinez, a 64-year-old retiree, said she was still shaking from shock. But the quake was a far cry from the tremors that struck Mexico in September, Martinez said: "This time it was strong, but it did not jump up and down".
A pair of powerful earthquakes struck the country in September, killing more than 300 people. The second earthquake knocked out power to some 5m people, and temporarily shut down schools and public transportation.
Agencies contributed to this report
