Earthquakes in Guatemala Trigger Landslides; At Least One Dead

Three successive earthquakes hit Guatemala on Monday, shaking buildings as far as 30 miles away, triggering landslides and inciting public panic. At least one person was reportedly killed.

The earthquakes happened within 90 minutes of one another in the southeast part of the country, centered near Cuilapa Santa Rosa. The largest was the second quake, which registered a 5.8 magnitude. It hit at 12:30 p.m. local time. The other two earthquakes both measured 4.8 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There is one dead in Cuilapa, Santa Rosa, due to a landslide caused by the quake. Another house in Santa Rosa collapsed as well, Erick Sarias, a volunteer firefighter, told Reuters.

Public buildings were evacuated and several collapsed, according to reports from Guatemala City.

The earthquake occurred just one day after a 6.9 magnitude quake hit the Sikkim state in India, killing at least 73 people in India, Nepal and Tibet.

The Indian quake hit Sunday night, and rescue workers are still hoping to find buried survivors under collapsed buildings, although many fear that the death toll will continue to rise over the next few days.

The situation doesn't look good, an official from the U.N.'s disaster management team in New Delhi told Reuters. My feeling is the death toll and number of injured are going to increase.

None of India's 20 nuclear power plants were disturbed by the earthquake, officials said Monday. The nuclear facility closest to the quake's epicenter is the Narora Power Station, some 800 miles to the west.

Most of the damage on Sunday night and Monday morning was the result of violent landslides, and in one six-mile stretch in Sikkim, there were at least 16 landslides. The most impacted area was the city of Mangan, where buildings were destroyed, roads buckled and highways blocked due to debris.

The quake was followed by 130 after-shocks on Sunday and Monday, the highest measuring 6.1 and 5.3 magnitude on the Richter scale, according to reports.

There have been a number of high-profile earthquakes in the last month. Last Thursday, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake rattled Japan, while Cuba was hit by a 6.0 earthquake. On Sept. 6, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and in August, there were three significant earthquakes in the United States, the largest in Virginia, which shook the whole East Coast of the country.