Scared Spaniards sleep outside after quake kills 9

[May 12, 2011]  LORCA, Spain (AP) -- Tens of thousands of people fearing aftershocks from Spain's deadliest earthquakes in 55 years woke up outdoors Thursday after fleeing their homes following a pair of successive temblors that sent debris tumbling from buildings. At least nine people died and 30 were hospitalized for injuries.

Some slept in cars, others fashioned shelters from cardboard boxes and many dozed in lawn chairs at makeshift camps in parks and at an outdoor trade show center in the small southeastern city of Lorca, an agricultural center about 30 kilometers (19 miles) inland from Mediterranean Sea beach towns where little to no damage was reported.

Only a few buildings were destroyed, but the relatively light quakes of 4.4 and 5.2 reported by Spain's geological institute sent brick building facades and parts of terraces plunging into the streets and caused damage to numerous apartment buildings that could take weeks to repair.

"The whole facade and the stairs of the flat where I live are totally broken," said resident Tomas Hinojo. "The hardest things happened right where I live. Three of the victims killed are my neighbors."

Spanish experts said the quakes caused so much damage because they happened about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) below ground, magnifying their energy and destructive power.

"The quakes in this area of the Iberian peninsula tend to be close to the surface. They occur in the first few kilometers (miles) of the earth's crust, for that reason they cause more damage," said Maria Jose Jimenez, a seismologist for the Spanish National Research Council.

The United States Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado reported slightly different magnitudes and a deeper quake depth.

The dead included one child, but the regional government of Murcia -- where Lorca is located -- said no one had been reported missing as of Thursday.

Thirty people were hospitalized, three of them in serious condition, and an additional 260 were treated for light injuries and shock immediately after the quakes, the regional government's health department said.

Officials estimated that about 30,000 people spent the night outdoors after the quakes, almost a third of the city's 90,000 population.

Lorca itself looked like a war zone, with cars crushed by rubble and buildings scarred with cracks. The regional government said much of the damage was caused by parts of terraces in apartment buildings and masonry facade shook loose by the quakes.

As dawn broke, many people returned home to assess the damage but some said they had no idea when they would be able move back into their apartments and houses.

"You can't imagine how it was," said resident Antonio Galindo. "Everything was broken, you definitely cannot get in there. You can't even open the door due to all the things that fell down there."

In one of the most dramatic images, chunks of stones and brick fell from the bell tower of the San Diego church in the city center as a reporter for Spanish state TV was broadcasting live from the scene. The church's bell also crashed down, just missing the reporter.

Lorca also suffered quakes of roughly the same magnitude in 1999, 2002 and 2005 that caused damage, but no injuries.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero halted campaigning for upcoming regional and municipal elections to oversee an emergency committee to coordinate rescue and aid operations, and made a special appearance in congress on Thursday to express condolences.

Eight hundred police and soldiers were deployed to the city to assist with the cleanup, but Zapatero warned that the process won't be quick.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," he said. "The task is very, very intense."

The quakes were the nation's most deadly since 1956, when 12 people died and about 70 were injured in the southern Granada region, according to Spain's National Geographic Institute.

The institute said Spain has about 2,500 quakes annually, but only a handful are felt. The south and southeast are the most prone regions.

Lorca has a mix of older buildings that are vulnerable to earthquakes and newer ones that are quake-resistant, according to the USGS.

The quakes occurred in a seismically active area near a large fault beneath the Mediterranean Sea where the European and African continents brush past each other, USGS seismologist Julie Dutton said. The USGS said it has recorded hundreds of small quakes in the area since 1990.

John Bellini, a seismologist with the USGS center, said the larger earthquake had a preliminary 5.3 magnitude and struck 220 miles (350 kilometers) south-southeast of Madrid at 6:47 p.m. (1647 GMT, 12:47 p.m. EDT). It was about 6 miles (10 kilometers) deep, and was preceded by the smaller one with a 4.5 magnitude in the same spot, Bellini said.

Lorca has roots dating back to Roman times and is noted for its hilltop medieval fortress and other historic buildings. Its economy depends on agriculture, and thousands of immigrants from North Africa and Latin American nations work the fields.

[Associated Press; By JORGE SAINZ]

Ciaran Giles, Daniel Woolls and Alan Clendenning contributed from Madrid, and James Anderson contributed from Denver.

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