Powerful quake hits Costa Rica, tsunami warning issued
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A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked Costa Rica on Wednesday, rattling buildings, cutting power in areas of the capital and triggering a tsunami warning.
Residents of San Jose said phones went down, electricity poles rattled on the streets and water flowed out of pools during the quake, but the Red Cross said no casualties had been reported so far.
"It was terrible. I was on the third floor, I had never felt anything like it," said Stephanie Gonzalez, a 25-year-old masters student in the capital.
The quake's epicenter was in western Costa Rica about 87 miles (140 km) from San Jose, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, and it was felt as far away as Managua, the capital of neighboring Nicaragua.
"People are very frightened and staying in their homes," said Eliecer Gonzalez, commercial director of a local newspaper in the Guanacaste region on Costa Rica's Pacific Coast. "We are very isolated and have no power."
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for Pacific coastlines of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama. It had earlier warned of tsunamis for as far afield as Mexico and Peru.
It was the biggest earthquake in Costa Rica since a 7.6 quake in 1991 left 47 dead. More recently, 40 people died in a 6.1 magnitude quake in January 2009.
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