Damage assessments from Panama's magnitude 7.7 earthquake are coming in. According to Panama's civil protection system, at least 27 people were injured — 17 in Coclé province, six in Los Santos, two in Panama Oeste, and one each in Herrera and Veraguas provinces. Officials said the injuries were mostly minor, with no deaths or missing persons reported so far.
The quake struck at 12:56 p.m. local time on October 9, with its epicenter about 10 kilometers southwest of Pitaloza Arriba in southern Herrera province, at a shallow depth of just 12.6 kilometers. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initially estimated magnitude 8.0 before revising it to 7.7.
The main shock was followed by a relentless aftershock sequence. René García, director of the Emergency Operations Center, told CNN that 147 aftershocks had been recorded, several reaching magnitudes of 6.1 and 6.6. Authorities said they are waiting for the tremors to subside before conducting structural inspections of damaged buildings.
Seismologists at the University of Panama recorded more than 80 aftershocks, though most were too weak to be felt. The largest, at magnitude 6.6, struck at 20:25 UTC on the same day as the main shock; others measured 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2. The USGS had warned casualties were possible and extensive damage probable — the actual toll came in below the worst-case model. A USGS exposure report estimated about 43,000 Panamanians faced severe shaking, far fewer than the 1.4 million in the affected zone of Venezuela's June quakes or the 1.6 million in western Colombia's August quake.
The heaviest damage was in Coclé province on the southern coast. Nationwide, at least 142 homes, four residential buildings, 188 schools, 20 health facilities, 26 government buildings, 13 churches, seven hotels and nine bridges were damaged, along with water treatment plants and road sections. Power outages hit six provinces.
A hotel and several homes collapsed in Tonosí; the Dos Continentes hotel partially collapsed, as did a government building and a church. In Penonomé, about 110 kilometers from the epicenter, CNN-verified footage showed a church with a partially collapsed steeple and another building with a crumbled facade. In the resort town of Playa Venao, a multi-story building collapsed and crushed several cars beneath it. Tocumen International Airport suspended operations to verify runway safety, diverting flights, before resuming later.
President José Raúl Mulino traveled to Penonomé, one of the cities closest to the epicenter. He had said earlier that authorities had documented no deaths as of Friday evening but cautioned that could change in the coming hours or days: "Nobody was ready, and no one is ever ready for this type of disaster."
The Panama Canal Authority said canal operations were continuing normally, with staff inspecting facilities for damage — dramatic footage showed the Centennial Bridge's suspension cables shaking as vehicles crossed. The Cobre Panama copper mine also reported normal operations. Colombia's president offered full support and assistance on social media.
The quake is the latest in a series of devastating earthquakes to hit Latin America in recent months: back-to-back quakes in Venezuela in June killed several thousand people, and an August earthquake in Colombia killed more than 300. By comparison, Panama escaped relatively lightly — though 147 aftershocks are keeping residents on edge.