I am Mel's daughter in law ( sorry the gato part might have thrown you off). My hubby is Chris, Mel's son. Chris knew you lived down there close to
them. We checked the board yesterday for posts from you. Chris lurks on the board a lot. Maria called me, thanks so much I really appreciate it.
Can i get some directions on posting photos? We were on the road from san Felipe about 25 miles south of Mexicali when the quake struck. I am
pretty sure we were at ground zero. I have some photos to share that were taken 30 minutes after the quake.
Monday 5 April; 1 p.m. - The road between San Felipe and Mexicali is now open but has sustained damage. Be very careful around km 45 where
agricultural water from the canals has overflowed and weakened the road. Signs have been erected and the area is being patrolled for additional
security and safety.
Originally posted by BajaWaverunner
Can i get some directions on posting photos? We were on the road from san Felipe about 25 miles south of Mexicali when the quake struck. I am
pretty sure we were at ground zero. I have some photos to share that were taken 30 minutes after the quake.
If the instructions are going to be hard to figure out, that Dennis posted a link to (I wrote them), I would be happy to post them for you right away,
until you have a chance to learn the method... Email hem to me, put "BAJA earthquake" in the subject line... info *at* vivabaja.com
Mexicali, Mexico (CNN) -- The governor of the Mexican state of Baja California said Monday he is asking the federal government for a natural disaster
declaration after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook the region.
The border city of Mexicali, the capital of Baja California, was the hardest hit by Sunday's quake, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
Two people died, and 233 injuries were reported, Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna said, according to the state-run Notimex news agency. Doctors in Mexicali
told CNN that between five and 10 people were in critical condition.
On Monday, authorities examined the damage in Mexicali. Electricity was restored in some parts of the city, and most structures were standing, though
the cleanup appeared to be daunting. Glass and other debris were strewn around the city.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon traveled to Mexicali on Monday to examine the damage first-hand.
Unlike the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, there were no reports of people trapped underneath rubble.
The city's hospital was also damaged, so doctors were seeing patients in the parking lot.
Kate Hutton, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology, said aftershocks in the magnitude 4 to 5 range are likely to continue for about
a week. The chances of a quake as big as Sunday's has dropped to less than 1 percent, she told reporters Monday afternoon.
"The good news is that aftershocks do become less frequent with time, so after a week or two, they won't be feeling earthquakes every night or day and
it will be only an occasional jolt," Hutton said.
Because the earthquake was only 6 miles deep, it created fissures in the earth. One witness told CNN that the earth opened up and that water poured
out.
The quake struck at 3:40 p.m. Sunday (6:40 p.m. ET) about 110 miles east-southeast of Tijuana, Mexico, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Pictures from Mexicali showed sides ripped off buildings, telephone poles toppled, roads cracked and supermarket aisles strewn with food that had
fallen off shelves.
Osuna said there was severe damage to some agricultural infrastructure that affected wheat crops, Notimex reported.
"A pair of canals that irrigate almost 60,000 hectares [148,000 acres] in the Mexicali valley were damaged," Osuna said. Mexico's National Water
Commission was working to redirect water into the canals.
Authorities opened four shelters in the city for families, he said.
There also were reports of landslides onto some highways, he said.
In televised remarks, the governor asked the public to be calm and follow any directives from the state's civil protection service.
"We have not felt a shake like that since about 1979," Michelle Tapia told CNN from Brawley, California, about 23 miles north of the Mexican border.
The quake was the largest in Baja California and Southern California since 1992, the USGS said.
The 1992 quake, which struck in Landers, California, triggered an earthquake the next day in Nevada and another quake 11 days later in Southern
California, according to USGS seismologist Lucy Jones. Both were 5.7 magnitude quakes.
CNN's Ted Rowlands, Nick Valencia, Paul Vercammen and Dan Gilgoff contributed to this report.
A major checkpoint on the northbound border into Calexico, Calif., from Mexicali, Mexico, remained closed Monday morning after Sunday’s 7.2 earthquake
in the region. Officials were continuing to assess how the quake on the Baja Peninsula, which killed at least two people and caused damage to border
cities, may affect travel in Mexico.
“We are asking for the the latest reports,” said Jorge Gamboa, director of the Mexico Tourism Board in Los Angeles. News reports, he said, indicated
that Mexicali’s downtown was closed, but that Tijuana wasn’t greatly affected ”as far as we know.”
Mexicali is a big city, but unlike Tijuana, it is not a major tourist destination.
Angelica De Cima, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Diego, said the Calexico West checkpoint was shut to northbound vehicle
traffic because of damage to the U.S. federal building, where entries are processed. Pedestrians were still able to cross the border, she added.
De Cima advised northbound motorists to head for the Calexico East checkpoint, several miles away, which had all eight lanes open Monday. Because of
traffic backups, expect delays of an hour or more there to cross the border. The San Ysidro checkpoint near San Diego and Tijuana remained open, with
what De Cima called normal waits of about 35 minutes.
For updates on closures and wait times at border checkpoints, check online for information from the agency, which De Cima said is updated hourly.
(You’ll need to scroll down a ways to find the Mexico border checkpoints.):
In a poor farming village about 20 miles south of Mexicali, the Baja government was setting up a relief center Monday to distribute blankets, food and
water for those whose homes were damaged or flooded. Hundreds of people, mostly families, have begun lining up, some of them walking miles to get to
the center.
Scattered throughout Colonia de la Puerta, hundreds of ramshackle homes made of adobe or brick, with tin or tar-paper roofs, collapsed after Sunday's
magnitude 7.2 earthquake. Many people are sleeping outside or in tents.
Government workers were busy Monday setting up a large tent to provide shelter while social service agencies were setting up to offer assistance.
There were no reports of injuries.
The Mexican Army is here to help keep control and President Felipe Calderon is scheduled to arrive Monday afternoon.
The lines at the relief center were mostly orderly and government officials said they did not anticipate any problems.
“We all know each other in this area,” said Hugo Flores, a government worker. “No one will cause a problem because, if he does, we will know him.”
“This is a seismic area so we try to be prepared,” said Marco Antonio, Undersecretary for Public Security for Baja. “But this was bigger than we
anticipated. We’re doing our best to put things together.”
Maria del Carmen, 21, said she and her family arrived at the relief center after walking seven miles from their home. “We have nothing,” she said. “We
have no water for our family. We need help.”
Mario Jimenez, 41, said he lived in an area where the canals broke and flooded houses. “There was water everywhere, like a big rain, except it came in
the house this time,” he said.
Evelyn Evangelista, 43, said her family’s tortilla factory was heavily damaged. The roof and walls collapsed and there is no electricity or water.
“This shop was our whole life,” she said. “But at least our family survived.”
Roberto Gonzalez-Chavez, 45, and his common law wife, Virginia Rodriguez-Felix, said their whole house fell. “Thank god we are still alive,”
Rodriguez-Felix said.
For now, the couple are sleeping in their backyard. They have no water or power. Later today, the president’s helicopter is expected to land in a
ballpark behind their house.
MEXICALI, Mexico — The day after one of the strongest earthquakes to strike the region in nearly two decades, residents on both sides of the border
marveled at how relatively little damage there was while waves of mild aftershocks troubled nerves.
A visitor dropped unexpectedly into this city, which seemed to sustain the most damage in the area, might be surprised to hear that a magnitude 7.2
quake had rumbled through the day before, causing two deaths and scores of mostly minor injuries and damaging several buildings.
It was the strongest quake in the Southern California and border region in nearly two decades. But its forces were fickle, leaving blocks of untouched
buildings, then a crumpled facade, broken glass and cracks climbing a wall.
“With the way things shook I wonder why the whole city didn’t come down,” said Laura Durantes, 49, as she sat on a lawn outside a shelter for people
who could not or did not want to return home. “Our house has a big crack in the floor, but we were lucky it is still there.”
There were reports of several dozen homes and businesses severely damaged or destroyed on the outskirts and in rural areas south of the city.
Two people died here or nearby — a 94-year-old man struck by a falling wall in his home, and a homeless man who died when the house he was squatting
in caught fire, Baja California state officials said.
Some 80 miles to the east, two major stores burned in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, which fire officials said was related to the quake.
The main border crossing into neighboring Calexico, Calif., where broken glass and plaster littered sidewalks downtown, was closed to vehicles as
United States officials assessed damage to the federal building there. But people could walk through an inspection an area, and many did.
Here, several large stores remained closed, as well as government offices, and by midday about a quarter of the city was still without power. But the
daily rhythms of life were re-emerging, with buses full, traffic steady, restaurants re-opening and people hustling to appointments.
Still, some residents preferred to remain outdoors — a balmy day certainly helped matters — near their houses or, in the case of Alma Delia Soto, 35,
and her three young children, at one of a few shelters the government set up.
“Here is the only place we feel safe,” said Ms. Soto, cutting up fruit on a blanket as her sons kicked a soccer ball in a park and recreation center
serving as a shelter. “We spent the night in the car all squeezed in, outside the house, but the car shook and shook with those aftershocks. We don’t
trust the walls of our house so we will stay here.”
Mexican seismologists said the city was probably spared heavy damage because a large number of buildings were built recently — it is an important
agricultural and manufacturing center with a relatively large middle class — and the energy of the quake moved from away from it, to the northwest.
The most arresting image here was the partial collapse of a parking deck under construction next to the civic plaza, with about half of it pancaked.
Across the street, the main hospital remained largely off limits after suffering big cracks, although state officials called the damage largely
cosmetic and said it had been evacuated as a precaution.
Some patients were evacuated while others were moved to the lobby, transformed into a kind of makeshift clinic.
At one point, an elderly man’s sudden, raspy breathing brought four doctors and nurses, who struggled to lift him from a wheelchair onto a portable
mattress on the floor.
“What’s the matter?” a doctor kept asking, checking his heartbeat, while a janitor mopped the floor a few feet away.
Reporting was contributed by Randal C. Archibold from Calexico, Calif., and Rebecca Cathcart from Los Angeles, Brian Stelter from New York, Rob
Davis from San Diego, and Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City.
Normal routines gradually returned Monday to the border city of Mexicali, Mexico, hit hard Easter Sunday by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake felt as far
away as Los Angeles and Phoenix, Mexican authorities said.
“Little by little, things are coming back to normal,” said Alejandro Contreras, a spokesman for the state government in Mexicali, a sprawling
municipality of almost 1 million situated about 125 miles east of San Diego. “People are nervous, of course, but we are calling for calm and working
to restore services.”
The quake left two dead and about 230 injured, none seriously, said Jorge Sanchez Rendon, another government spokesman. Most of the injured had
scratches and bruises, he said.
The northbound border into Calexico, Calif., from Mexicali, Mexico, remained closed to automobile traffic Monday morning because of concerns about
damage to the U.S. federal building, but people were allowed to walk through checkpoints into the U.S. as aftershocks rattled the region.
Authorities reported a total of 45 collapsed or partially collapsed buildings in Baja California.
Power and water supply was being restored, authorities said, though much of the city seemed without power early Monday and many traffic lights were
not functioning. Authorities said the damaged water supply system was improving, but that pressure was low.
Much of the visible damage downtown was from broken glass. People walked on the streets and cars circulated cautiously. Officials said electric power
had been restored by mid-morning to 75% of users in Mexicali. Half a dozen electrical sub-stations were being evaluated for damage, authorities said.
Thousands of people slept outside Sunday night as aftershocks shook the city, keeping nerves frayed. Authorities were setting up temporary shelters,
especially in rural areas where the quake ruptured irrigation canals and led to extensive flooding.
Mexicali is a major farming center, and irrigation is essential to the industry.
“There is a bit of a psychosis, people are scared, especially with all the aftershocks,” Contreras said. “We’re urging everyone not to panic, to know
that help is being provided.”
Authorities stressed that reservoirs were safe and amply supplied and there was no danger that Mexicali or the coastal city of Tijuana would run out
of water. A major aqueduct was being evaluated for damage but that should not affect water supply, officials said.
Some major roads, including the Mexicali-Tijuana highway, suffered damage but were still functioning, officials said. Officials were examining roads
statewide.
Hundreds of motorists and vacationers returning home after Easter break were stranded between Mexicali and Tecate to the west and San Felipe to the
south after running out of gasoline. Gas pumps were crippled by the lack of electricity.
Four shelters were set up in Mexicali for people whose homes were destroyed or who were afraid to sleep inside their homes. Thousands of people slept
outside Sunday night as dozens of aftershocks continued to shake. University classes scheduled to resume Monday were suspended.
Baja California Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan said patients from Mexicali’s damaged hospital were being treated in tents while crews of inspectors
were moving through the city to survey damage.
“Little by little the calm is returning,” Osuna said.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon planned to visit the city Monday afternoon to review the damage personally. Osuna said he planned to ask the
president to declare the city a disaster area, thus making it eligible for federal aid.
Although cars were prohibited from crossing north from Mexicali into Calexico, Calif., people walked over the border.
Meantime, a steady stream of cars drove south into Mexicali as residents attempted to check on their loved ones. Phones in Mexico were not working.
In Calexico, downtown merchants could be seen sweeping broken glass and fallen plaster away from their storefronts and covering walkways. Many
buildings were red-tagged until officials could inspect them further. Calexico police patrolled the downtown area overnight to watch for looting, but
none occurred.
An aftershock hit about 4:12 a.m., causing car alarms to go off all over town, and the cacophony continued for hours.
-- Tony Perry in Mexicali, Mexico, Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City and Patrick J. McDonnell in Los Angeles
Magnitude 7.2 temblor caused by same tectonic shifts that created Baja Peninsula.
Richard A. Lovett
April 5, 2010
The magnitude 7.2 earthquake that jolted northern Mexico and Southern California yesterday afternoon was the first big earthquake to occur on this
particular fault system since 1892, scientists say.
Centered on Mexico's Laguna Salada Fault in Baja California, the earthquake was triggered by the same processes that drive temblors on the San Andreas
Fault, which runs all the way from Southern California to north of San Francisco.
"On the scale of the Earth, it's all one fault zone: the plate boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American plate," said Mark Benthien,
communications director for the Southern California Earthquake Center in Los Angeles.
As the Pacific plate grinds northward against the western edge of the North American plate, most of the motion occurs along the San Andreas Fault. But
the plate boundary doesn't create a single, tidy fault line.
"Southern California [and northern Mexico are] a whole series of blocks sliding past each other," Benthien said.
The same motion also caused the Baja Peninsula to start rifting away from mainland Mexico about five million years ago, subsequently opening up the
entire Gulf of California.
"This is one of the classic places to study the early stages of the opening of ocean basins," said Seth Stein, a geophysicist at Northwestern
University in Evanston, Illinois.
The Baja California earthquake killed at least one person but did relatively little damage, because the epicenter was in a lightly populated area 38
miles (60 kilometers) south-southeast of Mexicali, Mexico.
Aftershocks, however, are propagating into the U.S. along the Elsinore and San Jacinto Faults, the California earthquake center's Benthien said.
These weaker aftershocks don't necessarily mean that a big temblor is brewing along those fault systems, Benthien said, but they do raise "some
concern."
Small earthquakes can sometimes precede larger temblors, because the little ones can cause a fault to slip until it reaches a point where a major slip
releases a "Big One."
In fact, a magnitude 4.4 temblor had rocked the same region in Baja California about a day before yesterday's earthquake, and there had been other
rumblings in the region "in the threes and fours all week," Benthien said.
In addition, a separate magnitude 4.4 temblor had jolted the Los Angeles Basin on March 16, centered near the northern end of the Elsinore Fault
system. But that earthquake was probably unrelated to yesterday's temblor, Benthien said.
"A 4.4 is a pretty run-of-the-mill earthquake that we can have at any time in Southern California," he added.
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
Thankyou to Baja Bound
Mexico InsuranceServices for your long-term support of the BajaNomad.com Forums site.
Emergency Baja Contacts Include:
Desert Hawks;
El Rosario-based ambulance transport; Emergency #: (616) 103-0262
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
