Illustration of a cracked rural road and a damaged colonial church after the Panama earthquake.

Panama Earthquake: 7.7 Quake Topples Churches, Cuts Off Tonosí

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A magnitude 7.7 Panama earthquake struck the country’s central provinces on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, followed by a magnitude 6.6 quake and dozens of aftershocks that collapsed homes and historic churches, split roads and cut off at least one town. As of Saturday, Panamanian authorities had not attributed any deaths to the quakes, according to the Associated Press.

The first quake hit at 12:56 p.m. local time (1:56 p.m. ET), centered near the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba in Herrera province. The U.S. Geological Survey’s reviewed solution places the epicenter about 12 kilometers west-southwest of Pitaloza Arriba at a shallow depth of about 12.6 kilometers. The USGS first reported the quake as magnitude 8.0, then revised it to 7.6 and later 7.7.

Damage in Herrera, Los Santos, Coclé and Veraguas

Omar Smith of Panama’s National Civil Protection Service said damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera and Los Santos, with no reports of damage in Panama City, the AP reported. Health Minister Fernando Boyd also named Coclé among the hardest-hit provinces and said the town of Tonosí in Los Santos was completely cut off. “We are trying to figure out how to get there by air, because it’s impossible by land,” Boyd told AFP.

In Penonomé, about 150 kilometers from the capital, Smith confirmed a partial collapse and cracks at the cathedral on the main square, as well as damage to the governor’s office building and the Dos Continentes hotel. In La Villa de Los Santos, a colonial-era town, the Church of San Atanasio collapsed. The church had been declared a National Historic Heritage Site in 1938. Large fissures ran along roads in Veraguas.

The National Civil Protection System reported 27 people with minor injuries nationwide, according to AFP. President José Raúl Mulino said, “We are facing a major disaster,” adding that some roads had “completely collapsed.” The education ministry suspended classes nationwide.

Panama Canal and Airport Operations

The Panama Canal Authority said shipping through the waterway continued normally while technical teams inspected facilities for possible damage. That matters well beyond Panama: global shipping is already under strain from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as covered in our report on Hormuz tanker attacks.

Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, which handled more than 20 million passengers in 2025, temporarily suspended operations after the first quake and reopened Friday afternoon, the AP reported. Several flights were diverted as a precaution.

Aftershocks and Tsunami Alerts

Seismologists at the University of Panama recorded dozens of aftershocks, including quakes of magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2. AFP reported that the local geosciences institute counted more than 80 aftershocks, one above magnitude 6.0. In La Villa de Los Santos, many residents spent Friday night on the streets. “In my 90 years, I had never experienced anything like it,” Tony Jiménez, whose home partially collapsed, told the AP.

A tsunami warning issued for the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Guatemala was later lifted. Before that, Néstor Luque, director of the Geosciences Institute at the University of Panama, said waves of 1 to 3 meters were expected around Isla Cañas and the southern coast of Los Santos, and that seawater had already reached homes near the coast on Isla Cañas. The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System rated the event an orange alert, estimating about 590,000 people were exposed to very strong shaking or worse.

Why Panama’s Toll Has Been Lower So Far

The region has suffered deadly quakes this year. Back-to-back magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes in Venezuela’s La Guaira state in June killed more than 6,500 people, and a magnitude 7.4 quake in Colombia in August killed at least 289, the AP reported. Carlos Valdés, head of seismology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said Panama’s strict building codes, especially for high-rises in the capital, may explain the lower toll. Panama’s last major damaging quake was a 1991 magnitude 7.4 centered in Costa Rica that killed 23 people.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was “rapidly mobilizing resources and personnel to assist” at Panama’s request. Leaders of Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Venezuela’s acting government also offered help. For background on Venezuela’s political situation this year, see our report on Venezuela’s Supreme Court reform deal.

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