Geneva, 23 January, 2003 - ACT member
Church World Service (CWS) reports that a major earthquake shook Mexico
at 20:06 on 21 January. The magnitude of the earthquake was
7.6 on the Richter Scale and lasted about 50 seconds shaking west and central
Mexico. The epicenter was on the Pacific coast, near the seaside resort
of Manzanillo in the state of Colima, some 500 miles from the Mexican capital.
The quake caused panic, power cuts,
interruptions in communications services, as well as the mobilization of
civil protection and emergency services in the states of Colima, Jalisco,
Mexico City, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Guerrero,
Oaxaca Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.
The assessment of damage has begun and the death toll currently stands at 21: 19 in Colima and 2 in Jalisco. There are reports of missing persons in the municipality of Tecomán, Jalisco.
ACT member in Mexico, Church World Service, CWS, is making contact with local organizations in the States of Colima and Jalisco, to compare the damages against local response capabilities and thus better identify international aid needs, which will be communicated to the ACT CO as soon as possible.
Thank you for your attention.
For further information: ACT Web Site address: http://www.act-intl.org
ACT is a worldwide network of churches and related agencies meeting human need through coordinated emergency response.
The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.