Unnerved Panamanians sleep in streets as aftershocks rattle quake-hit towns

LA VILLA DE LOS SANTOS, Panama -- Unnerved residents of rural Panama awoke Saturday on the streets as the aftershocks of two powerful earthquakes that roiled the country shook their communities for hours.The 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes toppled buildings near the epicenter and prompted evacuations across the Central American country. Seismologists at the University of Panama recorded dozens of aftershocks, including ones measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2.The earlier quake, felt as far away as neighboring Colombia, was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Panamanian authorities had not attributed any deaths to the earthquakes.In La Villa de Los Santos, a colonial-era community about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, homes and a historical Catholic church collapsed. People who spent the night on the streets were waiting for the government's guidance on what to do next."We’ve been here since 1 p.m. yesterday; we haven’t moved," Tony Jiménez, whose home partially collapsed, said ...