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Strong quake shakes Mexico City no major damage
People wait outside after being evacuated from their buildings following an earthquake in Mexico City April 11, 2012. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Strong quake shakes Mexico City no major damage MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A strong earthquake hit western Mexico on Wednesday, shaking buildings as far away as the capital and sending people rushing out of offices onto the streets, though there were no reports of major damage.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said on his Twitter account there were no initial signs of serious damage and that key services in the capital, including its subway system and the international airport, were operating normally.
“There was a nasty crunching sound in my bathroom and everything moved,” said Adela Arceo, who was looking after two young children in the central Roma neighbourhood of Mexico City.
There were no initial reports of casualties.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.5 magnitude quake struck in the western state of Michoacan at a depth of 12.4 miles (20 km). The epicentre was 238 miles (384 km) west-southwest of Mexico City. The USGS earlier estimated the strength of the quake at 7.0 magnitude and said it was deeper.
Emergency services in Michoacan and in the neighbouring state of Guerrero, which has been hit by a series of recent quakes, reported no major problems on Wednesday.
“You could feel it, but there’s no major damage. There are no reports, no emergency calls,” said Agustin Lule, a spokesman for fire services in Uruapan, a town in Michoacan near the epicentre of the quake.
Reuters reporters in coastal areas of Guerrero and neighbouring Oaxaca state said there was no damage.
The Honolulu-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it had not issued a tsunami warning, but staff oceanographer David Walsh noted the quake was close to water, big enough and potentially deep enough to cause one.
It was the third big earthquake to hit Mexico in less than a month. A 7.4 magnitude quake struck on March 20, damaging hundreds of buildings in the southwest. That was followed by dozens of aftershocks.
Earlier on Wednesday, an 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia, raising fears of a huge tsunami like the one that battered the Indian Ocean rim in 2004, but authorities said there were no reports suggesting a major threat.
(Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg, Simon Gardner, Krista Hughes and Ana Isabel Martinez; writing by Dave Graham; editing by Kieran Murray and Mohammad Zargham)
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I travel to the Yucatan at least once a year, sommitees twice and always rent a car. Your credit card insurance will do you no good at the time of the accident.They ask you to pay the bill and send them a claim. They will take up to 45 days to render a decision on whether to pay or not. It works differently than in the US. I have had an accident on Hwy 307 in the Yucatan. Luckily it was not my fault but there are several things you need to know:1. Everything is settled at the scene of the accident. The insurance agents and the rental car company will be called and will arrive to negotiate the terms.2. If you owe anything, they will want all of their money for the damage right then and there. You will have to pay them cash.3. Everything is negotiated in Spanish.4. In my experience the police were extremely helpful. They handed the other drivers license to me and told me (in Spanish of course) to keep it until the insurance agents and rental car company arrived. That was my assurance that he would have to pay.5. I had purchased all the insurance (I used Executive and I highly recommend them). and everything was taken care of. I drove the car to the airport in Cancun and the Executive employees were waiting for me and whisked me to the airport so that I could catch my plane. The accident scene took over an 90 minutes to resolve. The bribe you’re talking about is called a mordita. Usually you are stopped for speeding or doing something wrong. They simply take cash instead of writing a ticket. However, there are cases where people say they were stopped for no reason. Although I think they are few. One thing I do is carry my old expired drivers license in an old wallet with less than $10. If I’m stopped, then I show him that that license and the money he just waves me off. It’s not worth the bother. And if he did take my license. who cares? It’s expired anyway. So just watch your speed and be careful with one-way streets particularly in Playa del Carmen. There is a lot of construction right now since they are building a new overpass on the highway. Just go slow and watch carefully. I hope that helps. Have a fun time!