Synopsis
On Friday, two significant earthquakes of magnitudes 7.7 and 6.6 impacted southern Panama, leading to widespread evacuations. Many buildings collapsed near the epicenter while the capital experienced overwhelming fear among residents. Authorities did not report any fatalities, although there were injuries due to falling debris. Several aftershocks rattled the region, with damage primarily affecting central provinces. Regional leaders expressed solidarity with Panama, pledging support in response to the disaster.
Panama City: Two powerful 7.7 and 6.6 magnitude earthquakes and a series of aftershocks roiled southern Panama Friday afternoon, collapsing buildings near the epicenter and prompting evacuations across the country.
The earlier quake, felt as far away as neighboring Colombia, was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, the USGS said. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
The USGS initially reported the first quake as magnitude 8, then revised it to 7.6 and later to 7.7.
Visibly shaken residents of Panama City, the capital, gathered outside as they waited for news of the quake's impact on Friday.
"We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen, but we're okay, though we're very scared," Rosendo Dominguez, 60, who is from Herrera province, where the earthquake struck, told The Associated Press by phone. "Everyone is outside, scared."
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Multiple aftershocks continued to rattle Panama, including several measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2. Seismologists at the University of Panama recorded more than 45 aftershocks, though many were too weak to be felt.
Calls for calm and reports of collapsed buildings
Despite the strength of the successive quakes, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said authorities had not documented anyone killed as of Friday evening, though he cautioned that could change in the coming hours or days.
"Nobody was ready, and no one is ever ready for this type of disaster," Mulino said, after calling for calm earlier in the day.
Images of crumbling buildings and deep fissures slicing through roads added to fears across a region battered by a series of devastating earthquakes in recent months.
Two back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes roiled Venezuela's La Guaira state in June, killing more than 6,500 people and leaving 17,000 homeless. In August, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia killed at least 289 people.
The notably lesser toll in nearby Panama may have been due to the country's strict building codes, especially governing construction of skyscrapers in the capital, said Carlos Valdes, head of the Seismology Department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Omar Smith of the National Civil Protection Service said on the Telemetro Reporta news channel that damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera and Los Santos and there were no reports of damages in Panama City.
Smith said several injuries have been reported, including one person struck by debris from a partially collapsed structure in the city of Penonome, around 150 km (93 miles) from the capital. He confirmed a partial collapse and cracks at the cathedral in the district's main square, as well as damage in the governor's office building and the Dos Continentes hotel.
Local news outlets also reported that the Church of San Atanasio, a colonial-style Catholic church in Panama's Los Santos province, had collapsed. The church was declared a National Historic Heritage Site in 1938. Elsewhere, including in Veraguas province, large fissures ran along roadways.
Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, one of the region's busiest airports with more than 20 million passengers in 2025, temporarily suspended operations after the first quake but said Friday afternoon that it was reopening.
The Panama Canal Authority said operations were continuing normally along the global trade route. It said its priority was the safety of employees, vessels and crews and that specialized technical teams were inspecting facilities for possible damage.
Tsunami warnings as far as Chile's Easter Island
The last major earthquake to cause widespread damage in Panama struck in 1991. A magnitude 7.4 quake, centered in nearby Costa Rica, killed 23 people, injured 559, and left thousands of people homeless in the border Bocas del Toro region.
Earthquakes are common, especially along Panama's border with Costa Rica and its Pacific coast, because of the interaction of several tectonic plates, including the Cocos, Nazca and Caribbean plates.
Panama lies along the "Ring of Fire," a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin, where most of the world's earthquakes occur.
The National Weather Service lifted a tsunami warning issued shortly after the quakes on Friday for the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Alerts issued by El Salvador and Chile for Easter Island were also lifted.
Nestor Luque, director of the Geosciences Institute at the University of Panama, said waves between 3 to 10 feet (1 and 3 meters) were expected around Isla Canas and the southern coast of Los Santos province, but major waves weren't expected beyond that. Seawater had already reached homes near the coast on Isla Canas, he said.
Messages of support and offers of assistance flooded in from across the region on Friday afternoon. Mulino thanked fellow Latin American leaders for their support, saying he had spoken with the presidents of Chile, Uruguay and Guatemala, among others.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was closely watching the situation in Panama and "rapidly mobilizing resources and personnel to assist" at the request of Panama's government.
"The United States stands with the people of Panama," Rubio wrote on X.
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, whose country was recently hit by earthquakes, expressed his solidarity with the Panamanian people and their government during what he called "difficult times." Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, Costa Rican President Laura Fernandez Delgado, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and Peru's government also offered assistance.
"Panama is not alone! You can count on Colombia's support and our full willingness to provide whatever assistance is needed," de la Espriella wrote on X.
