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A police officer walks past a collapsed two-storey building cordoned off with civil protection tape. A Panamanian flag hangs inside a broken upstairs office.Photo: REUTERS
A mother holds her baby at a makeshift camp where families are sleeping outside after the earthquake.Photo: REUTERS
A white colonial church with a deep crack running down its bell tower, the top of which has collapsed.Photo: REUTERS

This year's 3rd-strongest earthquake · Azuero, Panama

Panama Earthquake Appeal

Families forced into makeshift camps at the height of the rainy season, unable to return to their homes as hundreds of aftershocks continue to hit.

Donate on JustGiving Where your money goes A volunteer appeal. We publish every transfer.
Destination charities · shared 50/50
Cruz Roja PanameñaClub de Leones de Panamá
Latest news

On the Ground in Panama

Donate Now – Panama Communities Need You!

A cash donation lets local responders pay for shelter, water and repairs close to home.

Where your donation goes

Help for families who've lost their homes

  • Under a gazebo at night, volunteers stand beside a water cooler and stacks of bottled water.Photo: Alejo Vargas
    Clean water
  • Volunteers in yellow vests hand out food under a gazebo while families sit and eat on plastic chairs.Photo: Alejo Vargas
    Hot meals
  • A volunteer in a Lions Club vest hands bottled water to an elderly man in a straw hat, who is already holding water and a bag of rice, on a country road.Photo: Alejo Vargas
    Food and water delivered
  • Families beside tents and tarpaulins in a field gather at a pickup truck as volunteers unload supplies.Photo: Alejo Vargas
    Shelter supplies
  • A house collapsed into a pile of concrete blocks and corrugated roof sheets, with a wooden cot and bedding caught in the debris.Photo: Alejo Vargas
    Families who lost everything
  • An old adobe house with a tiled roof, its front walls fallen into a heap of earth and timber.Photo: Alejo Vargas
    Homes to rebuild
  • The porch of a home where concrete-block walls have broken apart and rubble covers the floor, under a metal roof propped up on a wooden pole.Photo: Alejo Vargas
    Repairs to make homes safe
  • Packs of bottled water and bags of rice stacked against a low wall at night.Photo: Alejo Vargas
    Rice and water ready to hand out

Give now

Give online

Cruz Roja PanameñaClub de Leones de Panamá

Quick and secure through JustGiving. We send everything raised, less card fees, 50/50 to Cruz Roja Panameña and Club de Leones de Panamá, and publish proof of each transfer.

Choose an amount

Donate on JustGiving

Opens JustGiving's secure page in a new tab. Enter your amount there.

Donate Panama is a volunteer appeal, not a registered charity, so donations aren't tax-deductible. We hold funds in a dedicated account and send them on at least every 14 days.

How your money moves

Our rules for every donation

  • Split 50/50Half to Cruz Roja Panameña and half to Club de Leones de Panamá, for earthquake relief across Azuero. We send the Lions share once we have independently checked the club's bank account.
  • Sent at least every 14 daysOnline gifts are held in a dedicated account until each transfer.
  • Every transfer publishedEach transfer and its receipt is posted in the log below.
  • Nothing kept by usWe're volunteers. The only deduction is JustGiving's card fee of 2.9% + 35p per donation.
DateAmount sentRecipientProof

The aftershocks, mapped

Every strong quake since 9 October.

Each circle is one quake of magnitude 4 or more, sized by strength. The map replays 85 hours of shaking every 14 seconds.

Tap a circle for the reading
75strongest shown · Fri 9 Oct 12:56 → Tue 13 Oct 01:39
The 75 strongest quakes, magnitude 4 and above. Coastline © OpenStreetMap contributors.
3rd
Strongest earthquake on Earth in 2026
1,000+
Homes damaged across Panama
656
Schools damaged or affected
416
Aftershocks in the first 78 hours
A multi-storey building collapsed onto itself, crushing a car parked underneath.Photo: REUTERS
A building came down on the car parked beneath it.

The damage

Old towns, old walls.

The Azuero peninsula is full of colonial churches and adobe homes. Here is what's been reported so far.

A yellow church bell tower at dusk above a porch whose wall and ceiling have been torn open, with rubble on the floor.Photo: Alejo Vargas
A church porch torn open.
A kitchen where a wall has fallen in, with concrete blocks piled across the floor in front of a stove.Photo: Alejo Vargas
A kitchen buried under fallen blocks.
The toll so farMore than 1,000 homes damaged and 656 schools affected nationwide, in preliminary figures. Severe damage in Macaracas (Los Santos) and Los Pozos (Herrera), and homes damaged in Mariato (Veraguas).
TonosíClosest town to the epicentre. Water, electricity and roads disrupted; families in Búcaro camping outside their homes.
PenonoméThe tower of the San Juan Bautista Cathedral collapsed, part of the Hotel Dos Continentes fell and the governor's building was damaged.
SantiagoAuthorities reported severe damage in the Veraguas capital.
Chitré & Los SantosCivil protection reported damage in Chitré and along the Los Santos coast.
NationwideEvery school closed for safety checks. President Mulino visited the injured at Chitré's hospital. Flights at Tocumen airport and two Metro lines were suspended for hours.

Where your money goes

Relief first, then rebuilding.

Successful earthquake appeals spend in phases. In the first weeks most money goes on cash help and shelter; later it funds repairs once engineers have checked homes and schools.

Now · weeks 1–4

Relief

Emergency shelter, clean water, food and hygiene kits for families who can't go home. Cash grants so households can buy what they need locally.

Next · months 1–3

Recovery

Repairs to homes declared safe, temporary classrooms so children get back to school, and help for small farms and shops to reopen.

Later · months 3–12

Rebuild

Earthquake-resistant rebuilding of the most damaged homes and community buildings, guided by local partners in each district.

Online gifts are held in a dedicated account and shared 50/50 between Cruz Roja Panameña and Club de Leones de Panamá.
We're asking sponsors to cover event costs, so ticket money goes to the appeal.
We publish every transfer and its receipt on this page.

The aftershocks

The ground hasn't stopped shaking.

Hundreds of aftershocks followed the main quake, several of them above magnitude 6.

416aftershocks of every size in the first 78 hours
162of them in the first 24 hours
75of magnitude 4 or more, mapped above

The strongest quakes, every six hours

Quakes of magnitude 4 or more. More than a third came in the first eight hours, while families were deciding whether it was safe to go back inside.

How strong

Each step up in magnitude means about 32 times more energy. The main shock released about as much energy as 5.4 million tonnes of TNT.

Where they struck

Quakes of magnitude 4 or more, by nearest place.

The year's biggest

Bigger than the quakes that made headlines.

Panama's earthquake is the third-strongest anywhere in 2026. Smaller quakes in Venezuela and Colombia this year killed more than 6,800 people between them. Strength alone doesn't decide the damage, but it shows what Azuero went through.

#CountryMagnitudeDateDeaths reported

Events · coming in November

Raise a glass for Panama.

Two evenings in London this November. Dates, tickets and tables will be announced here soon.

Coming soon · tasting

Panamanian Rum Night

A guided tasting of aged rums from Panama, with a raffle on the night. Relaxed, social and open to friends of friends.

When
Early November
Where
The In & Out (Naval & Military Club), St James's Square, London
Tickets on sale soon
Coming soon · black-tie dinner

Panamá de Pie Appeal Dinner

Dinner, a guest speaker with a live link to the Azuero peninsula, and a live and silent auction. Tables of ten available for companies.

When
Mid-November
Where
The In & Out (Naval & Military Club), St James's Square, London
Tickets on sale soon

Who we are

Friends of Panama, in London.

We're three friends with family and close ties in Panama. When the earthquake hit, we wanted the people we know in London to have a simple, trustworthy way to help. We're volunteers and take nothing from the appeal.

LuisOrganiser
DianiOrganiser
OliverOrganiser

Questions

Before you give.

Is Donate Panama a charity?

No. We're three volunteers (Luis, Diani and Oliver) running an appeal. Online gifts are held in a dedicated account and shared 50/50 between our two partners in Panama. We publish every transfer.

Is my donation tax-deductible?

Not at the moment. Donate Panama is a volunteer appeal, not a registered charity, so donations don't qualify for Gift Aid or other tax relief.

Why cash rather than goods?

Shipping clothes and food from abroad is slow and expensive, and often isn't what's needed. Cash lets local responders buy the right supplies nearby, quickly, and supports local shops as they reopen.

Planning a larger gift?

Email appeal@donatepanama.org and we'll arrange it with you.

How much goes in fees?

JustGiving charges 2.9% + 35p per donation. We keep nothing.

How will I know where the money went?

Every transfer to Cruz Roja Panameña and Club de Leones de Panamá, with its receipt, is posted in the transfer log on this page.

Our partners in Panama

Two partner charities, shared 50/50.

Online gifts are held in a dedicated account and shared 50/50 between our two partners for earthquake relief across Azuero. We publish every transfer.

Cruz Roja PanameñaPanama's Red Cross Society, with 1,300 volunteers on the ground since the first hours.Read more → Club de Leones de PanamáLions clubs serving Panama since 1935, taking aid to families in Azuero.Read more →

The ground is still moving. Help Azuero stand back up.

Everything raised, less card fees, is shared 50/50 between Cruz Roja Panameña and Club de Leones de Panamá for earthquake relief across Azuero, and we publish every transfer.

Donate now
v1.1 · 15 Oct 2026, 01:26 BST