Panama suffers over 200 aftershocks after Friday's 7.7-magnitude earthquake
By Daniel Okafor · Reporting from New York ·
The zero death toll in Panama is a victory for urban engineers. It is a failure for the people of Herrera and Los Santos. Two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.7 and 6.6 struck Friday, followed by more than 100 aftershocks. While the capital survived, the rural provinces crumbled. The facts show a country split by its own safety standards.
The urban shield
The 7.7 magnitude quake centered southwest of Pitaloza Arriba in Herrera province. SBS News said Panama City is about 200km from the epicentre.
Carlos Valdes, head of the Seismology Department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said strict building codes for skyscrapers in the capital may have prevented widespread deaths. This mirrors the 2015 Chile earthquake, where strict codes limited the death toll relative to the magnitude.
The city felt the shock, but the infrastructure held. Tocumen International Airport temporarily suspended operations Friday. The airport had more than 20 million passengers, according to CBC News. Hospitals in Panama City set up tent facilities with cots. A water treatment plant in the city operated at 20 per cent capacity Saturday. The capital did not fall, but the provinces did.
Rural provinces crumbled
Damage occurred across Panama provinces and Indigenous territories. The National Civil Protection System reported damage to 420 homes and 420 public schools, according to The Guardian. Hotels, churches, and bridges were affected.
In La Villa de Los Santos, homes and a historical Catholic church collapsed. The Church of San Atanasio has been a National Historic Heritage Site since 1938. Tony Jimenez, whose home partially collapsed, said he had never experienced anything like it in his 90 years. He called the event "intense — truly intense."
The 1991 Panama earthquake shares the same mechanism as this disaster, leaving extensive structural damage to masonry buildings across Panama.
The logistics of rescue
President Jose Raul Mulino declared a state of emergency Saturday. Mulino won the 2024 presidential election as a substitute candidate for Ricardo Martinelli. He told SBS News that some roads had "completely collapsed." The town of Tonosi in Los Santos was completely cut off.
The U.S. government pledged $5 million US for humanitarian assistance. U.S. Southern Command delivered 2,000 pounds of food via two helicopters. This rapid deployment relies on Joint Task Force-Bravo, which maintains a regional disaster relief mandate from its base in Honduras.
The 2010 Haiti earthquake showed how total structural collapse triggers a global humanitarian response. Panama avoided that scale of death, but the structural failure remains. The 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake proved that a series of powerful aftershocks can cause catastrophic building collapse. Panama faced that same threat with aftershocks reaching magnitudes 5.8 and 5.5.
The government now faces a logistical gap. President Jose Raul Mulino will likely deploy Joint Task Force-Bravo assets from Soto Cano Air Base to clear isolated mountain roads in Veraguas and Herrera provinces. This is the only way to reach towns like Tonosi. The lack of fatalities is a statistical success, but the collapsed schools and homes in the provinces are the real story. Panama has built a safe capital and left its countryside to the mercy of the Ring of Fire.