by Daniel Conejo Daniel Conejo - Mon Apr 5, 11:55 am ET
MEXICALI, Mexico (AFP) - Emergency teams on Monday scrambled to assess damage after a major 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook northwestern Mexico, killing two people and rocking buildings as far away as Los Angeles.
Sunday's earthquake jolted millions of in a wide area including Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix, Arizona in the United States.
Most of the damage and injuries were centered in and around the Mexican border city of Mexicali, where two people were reported dead.
"One (person) was crushed to death when a wall fell down and another when a house collapsed," Jose Guadalupe Osuna, governor of Baja California state, told Televisa channel.
At least 233 people were injured, Osuna said after declaring a state of emergency in state capital Mexicali, where the quake left a scene of destruction, some 60 kilometers (38 miles) from the epicenter.
As aftershocks rattled the region, thousands of people had slept outside in the border city of some 900,000 inhabitants, as well as in the city of Tijuana, across the border from the US city of San Diego.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 5.1 magnitude aftershock early Monday in southern California about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south southwest of Seeley, California.
In the metropolitan hub of Mexicali, officials and witnesses reported toppled buildings, cracked roads, ruptured water canals, downed telephone polls and power outages. An undetermined number of homes, offices and hospitals were damaged.
Electricity officials worked on both sides of the border to reestablish interrupted services while classes were suspended indefinitely in Mexicali.
A firefighter at a station just outside the city told the Los Angeles Times that fires caused by the quake destroyed at least six homes after damaging propane tanks and severing electricity lines.
Several homes near the Cerro Prieto volcano some 31 kilometers (19 miles) from the quake's epicenter sank into the ground as water rose around them, according to the firefighter, Oscar Silas.
US and Mexican seismological services said Sunday's quake, which struck at 3:40 pm (2240 GMT), was shallow with a depth of just 10 kilometers (six miles). It was centered 26 kilometers (16 miles) southwest of Guadalupe Victoria in Baja California.
There were no immediate reports of deaths in the United States, allowing residents of California, Arizona and Nevada who live in perpetual fear of "The Big One" -- the massive and probably deadly earthquake seismologists predict will hit the region sometime in the future -- to breathe a sigh of relief.
Still, the worst may not be over, with experts warning another quake could hit in the coming days.
"Each earthquake we have triggers a chance for a bigger earthquake in the next few days," California Institute of Technology seismologist Lucy Jones said.
The USGS said Sunday's quake was felt as far away as Las Vegas, some 460 kilometers (290 miles) from the epicenter, as well as in Los Angeles, 360 kilometers (224 miles) away, and in Phoenix, 300 kilometers (186 miles) away.
The major temblor was the third in as many months to strike the Americas -- a January 12 earthquake of magnitude 7.0 killed an estimated 230,000 people in Haiti and in Chile, a massive 8.8-quake on February 27 left an estimated 452 people dead in one of the most powerful quakes ever.
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