Panama Earthquake 2026: What Americans Need to Know

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit southern Panama on Friday, October 9, 2026, and as of Saturday morning no deaths had been reported. If you have family, travel plans or business in Panama, here is what is confirmed so far and what to do next.

What happened in the Panama earthquake?

The quake struck at 12:56 p.m. local time (1:56 p.m. Eastern), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 12 km west-southwest of Pitaloza Arriba, a tiny community in Herrera province on the Azuero Peninsula, and the rupture was shallow, around 12.6 km (7.8 miles) down. Shallow quakes shake the surface harder, which is why this one was felt so widely.

The USGS first put it near 8.0 and then revised it down to 7.7. Some headlines still say 7.6, which came from earlier readings, so this post uses the current USGS figure. Bloomberg called it Panama's strongest earthquake in more than 75 years.

People felt it in Panama City, roughly 200 km away, where thousands rushed into the streets. It was also felt in Costa Rica and in Colombian cities including Medellín. AFP reported the shaking lasted about a minute, and Scientific American said the USGS counted around 4.6 million people who felt moderate to severe shaking.

This is still a developing story, so figures may change.

Source: India Today

How bad is the damage and are there casualties?

So far the news is better than the magnitude suggests, though not clean. CNN reported several minor injuries and no fatalities or missing people, with homes, roads, hotels, government buildings, businesses and churches damaged, according to Panama's civil protection system.

The worst pictures are from Penonomé, a city about halfway between the epicenter and Panama City. Omar Smith of Panama's civil protection agency told NBC News that the cathedral there partly collapsed and cracked, as did the Dos Continentes hotel, and one person was hit by debris from a partly collapsed building. Al Jazeera cited video from the newspaper La Prensa showing a historic tower down and balconies fallen in the same city. Damage was also reported in Chitré and along the coast of Los Santos province, per The Business Standard.

President José Raúl Mulino visited the affected area. According to Bloomberg, officials were working to move families out of damaged homes and weighing whether to move patients out of damaged hospitals. Schools and government offices closed, ABC News reported. Panama's civil protection agency told ABC it was not asking for international help yet but could change that. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was mobilizing resources and personnel at Panama's request.

Early estimates are rough. Bloomberg reported a USGS projection of economic losses above $1 billion, and Scientific American noted that USGS modeling had pointed to dozens to hundreds of possible deaths. The reported toll so far is far below that, but remote areas can take a day or two to report in.

Was there a tsunami warning, and what about aftershocks?

Yes, briefly. The U.S. National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned of hazardous waves minutes after the quake. The Watchers summarized its forecast: waves of 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 feet) possible along some Panama coasts, up to 1 m in parts of Ecuador, and under 0.3 m elsewhere in Central and South America. The warnings covered Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, Al Jazeera said. ABC News reported the threat later subsided. A seismologist told Scientific American a tsunami was unlikely because this was a shallow strike-slip quake on land that did not move the seafloor much.

Aftershocks are the ongoing risk. The largest so far was a magnitude 6.6 about two and a half hours after the mainshock, with a 5.8 also recorded. Counts differ by source. The Business Standard said more than 40, AFP said more than 80, and Panama's emergency operations director told CNN there had been 147. Those numbers likely reflect different magnitude cutoffs, not a real disagreement. Expect more shaking for days or weeks.

What does the Panama earthquake mean for Americans?

Three groups are most affected: travelers, people with family in Panama, and anyone whose business depends on the Panama Canal.

Flights and travel

Tocumen International Airport closed after the quake to check for damage. Bloomberg reported it reopened later, and AFP said some flights were diverted. I could not find airline-by-airline cancellation lists, so check your carrier's status page before you leave for the airport. Aftershocks can trigger fresh inspections.

If you are in Panama right now

• Enroll in the State Department's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to get embassy updates.
• Contact U.S. Embassy Panama City at +507 317-5000 or Panama-ACS@state.gov, and watch pa.usembassy.gov. I did not find an embassy alert about this quake when I searched Saturday, so check the site yourself.
• From the U.S. or Canada, the State Department's Overseas Citizens Services line is 1-888-407-4747. From overseas it is +1 202-501-4444.
• Stay out of cracked or damaged buildings, especially in Herrera, Los Santos, Veraguas and Coclé provinces, where officials have focused their damage checks. If you are on the Pacific coast and feel strong shaking again, move to higher ground without waiting for an alert.

That safety advice is general earthquake guidance, not something drawn from the news reports above.

If you have family there

Phone networks get jammed after a quake. A short text or a messaging app tends to get through when a call will not. Panama's civil protection agency said injured people were taken to schools, health centers and hospitals, so the first place to ask is the local health authority.

The Panama Canal and U.S. shipping

The Canal moves roughly 5% to 6% of world maritime trade, so a quake near it draws attention fast. This one struck about 193 km (120 miles) from the Canal. QuakeFeed reported shipping operations stayed normal, and AFP's footage showed a bridge over the Canal shaking hard but staying upright. I did not find a statement from the Panama Canal Authority, so treat "normal" as provisional until it publishes one.

Why does Panama get big earthquakes?

Panama sits on a restless piece of the Pacific edge. QuakeFeed placed this rupture on the Panama Fracture Zone, and Wikipedia lists it as a strike-slip event, meaning the two sides of the fault slid sideways past each other, much like California's San Andreas.

The last quake this size was in 1991, when a magnitude 7.7 shook the Costa Rica and Panama border and killed 75 to 87 people, according to Wikipedia's list. In 1882 a magnitude 8.3 hit the San Blas Islands and set off a tsunami. Geologists have also warned that the Pedro Miguel and Limón faults near the Canal ruptured repeatedly over 1,400 years, including a 1621 quake that offset a Spanish trade road.

So far, this one looks gentler than 1991 in human terms. The area around the epicenter is thinly populated, and that probably helped more than anything else.

Sources

Checked October 10, 2026. Details come from the reports linked below and may have changed since.

• U.S. Geological Survey event page
• ABC News: 7.7 magnitude earthquake shakes Panama
• CNN: Powerful earthquake shakes Panama, followed by large aftershocks
• NBC News: A 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocks Panama
• Al Jazeera: Tsunami warnings after magnitude 7.7 quake
• Bloomberg, via Business Standard: Panama hit by strongest quake in 75 years
• AFP, via Malay Mail: Powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake destroys buildings, roads
• The Business Standard: Strong Panama quake avoids major destruction
• Scientific American: Major earthquake strikes Panama
• The Watchers: tsunami forecast and shaking exposure
• U.S. Embassy Panama and Smart Traveler Enrollment Program