Mexico Earthquake Death Toll Climbs to 90

OAXACA, Mexico – The death toll from the recent magnitude-8.2 earthquake that rocked southern Mexico rose Sunday morning from 65 to 90 after the governor of Oaxaca said there had been 71 fatalities in his state alone.

“In an assessment meeting, Gov. Alejandro Murat revealed that the fatality figure from the earthquake had climbed to 71,” Oaxaca’s Civil Protection Secretariat said on Twitter.

The federal agrarian, territorial and urban development secretary, Rosario Robles, said in an interview with Milenio Television that on Saturday she had accompanied the Oaxaca governor on a tour of several municipalities in the state.

Asked whether there was a confirmed number of fatalities, she put the number at 71 in that state.

On Saturday, the national coordinator of Civil Protection, Luis Felipe Puente, said in an interview with that same media outlet that the preliminary death tally from the earthquake was 65,” of whom 15 were in Chiapas, 46 in Oaxaca and four in Tabasco.”

According to state and municipal sources, the municipality of Juchitan de Zaragoza, in Oaxaca state, was the hardest hit with around 60 deaths. But they warned that those figures remain preliminary.

The National Seismological Service said in its most recent report that as of midnight Saturday there had been 846 aftershocks of the magnitude-8.2 earthquake, which struck just off the coast of the southeastern state of Chiapas late Thursday.

President Enrique Peña Nieto said Friday that the earthquake, which was felt by around 50 million people nationwide, was the most powerful to hit Mexico in 100 years.

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