{"id":643501,"date":"2026-10-11T21:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T21:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/643501\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T21:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T21:32:15","slug":"israelis-in-panama-describe-surviving-magnitude-7-7-quake-tsunami-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/643501\/","title":{"rendered":"Israelis in Panama describe surviving magnitude 7.7 quake, tsunami scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook Panama<\/a> on Friday, Israeli Nurit Goren Elfant and her family felt lucky to be outside as their house, like many others in the area, collapsed.<\/p>\n

Speaking to N12 News on Saturday, Elfant described the destruction and damage caused by the quake<\/a> and subsequent aftershocks, some reaching up to magnitude 5.8.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened a few minutes before one in the afternoon. It was something you can\u2019t even imagine,\u201d she recounted. \u201cThe ground shook at a level you don\u2019t see in movies, and for 13 consecutive hours, there were tremors every few minutes. We were lucky to have been outside when our house was destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of southern Panama was cut off from the internet in the aftermath of the quake, including in the coastal town of Playa Venao, an area where Elfant told N12 many Israeli families live. Only those who have access to satellite internet have been able to connect to the outside world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these families lost everything,\u201d Elfant continued, describing the experience of her fellow Israeli expats. \u201cEverything completely collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople stand outside the maternity ward of the Santo Tomas hospital, after a severe magnitude 8 earthquake hit the country, in Panama City on October 9, 2026. (credit: MARTIN BERNETTI \/ AFP via Getty Images)A tsunami warning sends families to higher ground<\/p>\n

A Tsunami warning was issued during the tremors, leading to many of the families moving to higher ground in the mountains. Elfant\u2019s family returned to lower ground earlier than others, but some of those who stayed got stuck in the mountains due to roads being blocked with debris and bridges collapsing.<\/p>\n

Elfant told N12 that Israeli families were among those stuck up on the mountain on Friday afternoon as Shabbat approached.<\/p>\n

A community that comes together<\/p>\n

The Israeli community managed to organize a Shabbat meal despite the conditions.<\/p>\n

“The rabbi of the Chabad house went up to the mountain; they took the food they had left at the Chabad house and what they could salvage from the supermarket, which was completely destroyed, and they set up an impromptu Shabbat meal there and a big kiddush for the entire Jewish community,” Elfant said.<\/p>\n

“I think there were over 200 people there. They stayed to sleep outside there. They are still without water and electricity, so we don’t know what’s happening to them.”<\/p>\n

Elfant\u2019s family has been able to help some neighbors with two buses they previously converted into homes. “Because a bus can absorb shocks, we sleep in it and let other families live with us. Right now, five families live here on our farm. We have solar electricity, but there is no electricity<\/a> in Vanu and the entire area,” she explained to N12.<\/p>\n

According to N12, the water supply in the area has been severely damaged, and people have little access to potable water. “Our well, which is 42 meters deep, has completely mixed up and is mainly producing basalt,” says Nurit. “Because of the tremors, all the water tanks that people had for emergencies were flooded. We had a three-cubic-meter water tank that exploded.”<\/p>\n

To\u00a0drink water<\/a>, Elfant said she and her family will have to collect water from a stream or rainwater and boil\u00a0it. They hope to get through the next month and rebuild their home.<\/p>\n

The Environment and Climate Change portal is produced in cooperation with the Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Jerusalem Post maintains all editorial decisions related to the content.<\/p>\n

\"Ben-Gurion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook Panama on Friday, Israeli Nurit Goren Elfant and her family felt lucky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[110450,1903,1902,17388,289788,100368,242,85,46,146308,126795,141],"class_list":["post-643501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-chabad","tag-diaspora","tag-diaspora-jews","tag-disaster","tag-disasters-in-the-world","tag-earthquake","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-natural-disaster","tag-panama","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}