Powerful Quakes Rock Panama; No Chinese Casualties Reported
A powerful earthquake struck central-southern Panama shortly before 3:00 p.m. local time on Friday, October 9, collapsing buildings and cutting off roads, with a second major quake and dozens of aftershocks following. No deaths had been confirmed as of Friday evening, and no casualties were reported among Chinese nationals, according to Xinhua News.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, visiting the hard-hit city of Penonome, said the disaster was severe and urged the public to remain calm. “Nobody was ready, and no one is ever ready for this type of disaster,” he said, according to The Associated Press, which reported his earlier call for citizens to follow the guidance of the National Civil Protection System (SINAPROC).
A Double Blow and a Cascade of Aftershocks
The first quake was initially reported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at magnitude 8.0, then revised to 7.6 and later 7.7. Panama’s University of Panama Geosciences Institute graded it at 7.5, Xinhua reported. The epicenter lay about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba in the central province of Herrera, at a shallow depth of roughly 10 kilometers. A second quake of magnitude 6.6 followed, along with dozens of aftershocks, including tremors measuring 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2.
The USGS estimated that about 4.6 million people felt moderate to severe shaking and warned the effects were “likely to be widespread.” Seismologists at the University of Panama recorded more than 45 aftershocks, many too weak to be felt. Nestor Luque, director of the Geosciences Institute, attributed the event to the Azuero-Sona Fault System and said the seismic signals traveled across the entire national territory, which is why the shaking was felt everywhere.
Severe Damage Concentrated in Central Provinces
Damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera, Cocle and Los Santos, Newsroom Panama reported. In Penonome, the capital of Cocle, structural damage was reported at the San Juan Bautista Cathedral, the Governor’s Office building, the Dos Continentes Hotel, the Iguana Mall and the Aquilino Tejeira Hospital, where patients were evacuated. In Los Santos, the colonial-era Church of San Atanasio, declared a National Historic Heritage Site in 1938, collapsed, and the town of Tonosi was cut off by land, with rescue agencies attempting to reach it by air.
Panama’s Health Minister, Boyd, said Cocle, Los Santos and Herrera were the provinces hardest hit, Xinhua reported. Meanwhile, fire stations were damaged in several provinces, including a partial collapse at the Sona station that trapped emergency vehicles and a rescue boat, according to Newsroom Panama.
Schools and critical infrastructure also suffered. Fifteen students from the Alberto Zuniga School in Cocle were evacuated with minor injuries, and one person was rescued from the municipal market in Aguadulce. Tocumen International Airport, one of the region’s busiest with more than 20 million passengers in 2025, temporarily suspended operations before reopening Friday afternoon. The Panama Metro suspended service on Lines 1 and 2, power provider Naturgy reported outages across six provinces, and the Chilibre water treatment plant was operating at just 20 percent of capacity. Panama City itself reported no significant damage, though minor damage hit four apartment buildings and the Pearl Islands archipelago.
Tsunami Warnings Across the Pacific, Then All Clear
The quake triggered tsunami warnings along Pacific coasts stretching from Central America to Mexico and as far as Chile’s Easter Island. Waves of 3 to 10 feet (1 to 3 meters) were expected around Isla Canas and the southern Los Santos coast, and seawater reached homes near the coast on Isla Canas before the warnings were lifted later Friday for Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Easter Island. The quake was felt as far away as neighboring Colombia and Costa Rica.
The Panama Canal Authority said shipping through the global trade route continued normally, with technical teams inspecting facilities for possible damage. According to The Jerusalem Post, about 90 vessels were waiting at both ends of the canal to pass or dock, and the USGS estimated economic losses could reach 1 to 10 percent of Panama’s gross domestic product.
Regional Solidarity and a Question of Preparedness
Messages of support and offers of aid poured in from across the region. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was “rapidly mobilizing resources and personnel to provide assistance” at Panama’s request, adding that “the United States stands with the people of Panama.” Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella wrote that “Panama is not alone,” while the leaders of Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Chile and Uruguay also offered support.
The relatively low toll so far may reflect Panama’s strict building codes, especially for skyscrapers in the capital, said Carlos Valdes, head of the Seismology Department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The region has been battered by major quakes in recent months: back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela’s La Guaira state in June killed more than 6,500 people, and a 7.4 magnitude quake in Colombia in August killed at least 289. The last major quake to cause widespread damage in Panama struck in 1991, when a magnitude 7.4 event centered in nearby Costa Rica killed 23 people.
What’s Next
President Mulino cautioned that the casualty picture could change in the coming hours and days. With search-and-rescue teams still assessing remote areas, the full human and economic cost of the disaster is not yet known. Panama was scheduled to hold a national evacuation drill on Monday to test its earthquake response—an exercise now taking on added urgency.
For Chinese nationals in the country, Xinhua reported no casualties at the time of its filing, though embassies and local Chinese community groups are expected to continue monitoring the situation as assessments proceed.