October 11, 2026 — Panama is counting the cost of one of the most powerful earthquakes in its modern history, as rescue crews and engineers fan out across the centre of the country two days after a magnitude 7.7 tremor toppled buildings, split roads and sent thousands of residents into the streets.
The quake struck on Friday afternoon at 12:56pm local time, with its epicentre near the small town of Pitaloza Arriba in Herrera province, at a shallow depth of about 12.6 kilometres, according to reports citing the United States Geological Survey. The agency first measured the tremor at magnitude 8.0 before revising it to 7.7.
President José Raúl Mulino told the nation on Friday that Panama was facing a major disaster, adding that some roads had completely collapsed. In Panama City, roughly 200 kilometres from the epicentre, residents evacuated swaying high-rises, and a video widely shared online showed water sloshing from a rooftop pool more than 20 storeys up.
More than 80 aftershocks have been recorded, including tremors of magnitude 6.6 and 6.0, and seismologists warn that further strong shaking is likely in the coming days. A tsunami alert issued for parts of the Pacific coast was later lifted. Early assessments reported no confirmed deaths but dozens of injuries, along with damage to nearly 200 schools nationwide.
The country’s main airport in Panama City temporarily suspended flights, while the Panama Canal — about 200 kilometres from the epicentre — kept operating normally after inspections. Power was knocked out across six provinces. Major earthquakes are rare in Panama, and economists cited in early estimates suggested losses could reach between 1 and 10 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Regional neighbours have offered assistance, and Panama’s civil protection agency says damage assessments are continuing across Herrera, Veraguas and Los Santos provinces, where collapsed bridges have isolated some communities. With the aftershock sequence expected to rumble on for days, officials are urging residents to avoid damaged buildings and to follow evacuation guidance — a sobering start to the week for a country unaccustomed to quakes of this scale.
