Yahoo – AFP,
Sofia MISELEM, Joshua Howat BERGER, September 8, 2017
 |
A street is seen in the eastern area of Mexico City after a 8,2 earthquake
on September 8, 2017 (AFP Photo/ALFREDO ESTRELLA) |
Mexico City
(AFP) - Mexico's most powerful earthquake in a century killed at least 35
people, officials said Friday, after it struck the Pacific coast, wrecking
homes and sending families fleeing into the streets.
President
Enrique Pena Nieto described the 8.2 magnitude quake as "a major
earthquake in scale and magnitude, the strongest in the past 100 years."
The
southeastern Pacific coast states of Oaxaca and Chiapas appeared to have borne
the brunt of the damage, with 25 people killed in Oaxaca alone, Mexico's
agriculture secretary Jose Calzada said.
The worst
destruction appeared to be in Juchitan, Oaxaca, where 17 people were confirmed
dead, state governor Alejandro Murat said on local television.
Officials
said the death toll there could rise.
"There
are houses that collapsed with people inside," Luis Felipe Puente,
director general of the emergency response agency, told TV news channel
Milenio.
A hotel
also collapsed in Juchitan, the town hall partly caved in, and many homes were
badly damaged.
Seven
people were killed in Chiapas and three people, including at least two
children, were killed in neighboring Tabasco state, authorities said.
In Tabasco,
one child was crushed by a collapsing wall. Another, an infant on a respirator,
died after the quake triggered a power outage.
 |
Map showing
the epicentre of a 8.1-magnitude quake that hit the coast of Mexico
late
Thursday and countries in the Americas with tsunami warning (AFP Photo/
Laurence
CHU)
|
Fleeing
in pajamas
The quake
epicenter was about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the coastal town of Tonala,
in far southern Chiapas state, and hit at 11:49 pm Thursday (0449 GMT Friday),
Mexico's seismologic service said.
The US
Geological Survey put the magnitude slightly lower, at 8.1. That is the same as
a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico
City -- the country's most destructive ever.
The quake
shook a large swath of the country and was felt as far north as Mexico City --
some 800 kilometers from the epicenter -- where people fled their homes after
hearing sirens go off as buildings trembled and swayed.
Many of
those fleeing were in their night clothes. Some clutched babies and pets as
they stumbled onto the streets.
"Not
another one. God, please no," said one woman, falling to her knees to
pray.
"I was
driving when the ground started to shake. The car was wobbling," said
Cristian Rodriguez, a 28-year-old Uber driver in Mexico City.
Onelia
Guerra, an anxious Oaxaca local who was in the capital, was taking a plane back
to home to check on her family.
"My
father and my 14-year-old son are alone there," she told AFP.
Hurricane
coming
The quake
injured four people and damaged homes in neighboring Guatemala, the country's
state disaster authority head Sergio Cabanas told reporters.
The quake
struck as Mexicans were also bracing for the impact of Hurricane Katia, which
strengthened to a Category Two storm as it rumbled towards the state of
Veracruz on the Gulf coast.
It is one
of three active hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean alongside Irma and Jose.
Mexico is
vulnerable to hurricanes, given its location and its Pacific and Atlantic coastlines,
and is hit by a least a dozen weather events a year.
 |
Residents
gather on a street in Mexico City on September 7, 2017, after an
earthquake of
magnitude 8.1, according to the US Geological Survey, struck the
south and was
felt as far away as the capital (AFP Photo/Pedro PARDO)
|
Tsunami
alert lifted
Speaking
from the National Disaster Prevention Center's headquarters, where he was
supervising the emergency response, Pena Nieto said that 50 million people out
of Mexico's population of 120 million people felt the quake.
Mexican
officials ordered schools to remain closed Friday in 11 states, including
Mexico City, so they could inspect for structural damage.
The quake
struck at a depth of 69.7 kilometers, according to the USGS.
Initially,
authorities issued a tsunami alert for a huge stretch of coastline starting in
central Mexico and spanning Central America all the way down to Ecuador.
It was
later lifted, but Mexico remained on alert for aftershocks.
Since the 1985
earthquake, Mexican authorities have instituted a stricter building code and
developed an alert system using sensors placed on the coasts.
Mexico sits
atop five tectonic plates, whose movement makes it one of the most seismically
active countries in the world.
Pope
Francis, at an open air mass on a visit to Colombia, said he was praying
"for those who have lost their lives and their families" in the
quake.
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“… The Weather
Let's talk about the weather. We retreat to exactly what we told you before in this very chair. The water cycle is a cooling cycle, not a heating cycle. You're going to have more severe winters and storms. It's going to get colder. But it gets warmer before it gets colder. That is the cycle, and it has always been the cycle. You can see it in the rings of the trees and the cores of the ice. Don't let your scientists pull the political wool over your eyes for their own purposes. Start seeing these things for what they are. It's a recurring cycle based on four Earth alignment attributes, including the wobble (the precession). You're in this cycle. Prepare.
The beginnings of it will be with you from now at least until the end of the 2012 36-year window, and you can watch it work. The first thing that happens is that the ice melts at the poles, but not completely. It's the way it has happened before. As the redistribution of weight from the poles to the oceans of the earth takes place, the weight is redistributed to the crust, and that creates earthquakes. And the earthquakes that will be the most powerful are the ones that are closest to the poles. We told you that some time ago. So it's not a mystery that suddenly you have some of the most powerful earthquakes that you've ever had. Not only that, but a cooling ocean creates larger storms.
What do the conspiracists do with all this? "See? We're doomed. Here it comes," they say. "Here it comes! The end is here!" Twenty-two years ago, we gave you the information that is happening today. We told you about the weather. We told you to get ready for it, but we still haven't told you why the water cycle is needed. We've hinted at it since it is very controversial, and we'll lose many readers right here and now. Here's the prediction: The scientists are going to laugh and biologists are going to scratch their heads and roll their eyes.
The Refreshing of the Cycle of Life
When you change the temperature of the waters of the planet, it changes the life cycle of the ocean and it eventually renews itself. The life cycle of the planet has a limit to its viability over time. There has to be a refreshing of the very cycle of life, and this is what the water cycle does. Are there any places you've seen too many fish lately? Yes. Millions of salmon in the north. Odd that it was in Alaska, isn't it? Alaska is very close to the poles where the water temperature is being felt first. Oh, again the experts will tell you that this is not the reason. It's about hatcheries and rivers. But nobody predicted this, did they? Science is fast to give you reasons, but slow to give you logic in advance. They always seem to be surprised.
We are saying things we haven't said before. Again, watch for this, an actual change in the life cycle of the planet's oceans because of the water temperature shift. Biologists are going to have to start redesigning the paradigm of how everything works, including reefs, ocean bottoms, and how plankton survive and reproduce. Listen, this is not the first time that the life cycle has been refreshed! But again, this may take generations of humanity to complete. In the process, you may again lose species. This is normal. Gaia is slow, and Humans are impatient. Your textbooks may someday tell of how naive humanity was back in 2011 when they tried to blame weather changes on everything but a natural cycle. Now you know why there is a water cycle.
So what does that tell you about Gaia? Gaia is beginning the cycle of refreshing life on over-fished oceans. It tells you that in the cracks, there is love and caring about the Humans who live on the earth. There's a reason you're here. There's a plan here, and a benevolent Universe and quantum energy with intelligent design. All is there for you, precious, sacred Human Being. …”
