Panama rocked by 2 powerful earthquakes and multiple aftershocks,
prompting evacuations
[October 10, 2026]
By JUAN ZAMORANO, MEGAN JANETSKY and ALMA SOLÍS
PANAMA CITY (AP) — 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 Domínguez, 60, who is
from Herrera province, where the earthquake struck, told The Associated
Press by phone. “Everyone is outside, scared.”
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 José
Raúl 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 Valdés, 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
Penonomé, 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.
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Vehicles lie crushed beneath a collapsed hotel after an earthquake
struck Penonome, Panama, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aris
Mariota)
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.
Néstor 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 Cañas 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 Cañas, 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 Rodríguez,
Costa Rican President Laura Fernández 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.
___
Janetsky reported from Mexico City, and Solís reported from Panama
City. María Verza in Mexico City, Clara Preve in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, Gabriela Molina in Quito, Ecuador, Eléonore Hughes in Rio
de Janeiro, and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.
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