Aftershocks Rattle Mexico-California Region Hit by Quake

LOS ANGELES — Strong aftershocks jolted cities along the border between the United States and Mexico early Monday, a day after a powerful earthquake killed at least two people in northern Mexico, damaged homes and knocked out power to thousands of people.

The governor of Baja California, Mexico, where the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck on Sunday afternoon, said he had asked for federal disaster assistance because of the damage to the urban infrastructure. The governor, Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan, said in an interview with the Mexican television network Televisa that 233 people had been injured, and that some of those were being treated in tents outside hospitals.

Mexicali, a large industrial city near the quake’s epicenter, was reported to have suffered widespread blackouts, along with fires, gas leaks and phone line damage. Photographs posted on Twitter and some news sites showed buildings with crumbled facades and food on supermarket shelves sent crashing to the floor. Mr. Escobedo said that a multistory parking structure had collapsed at the Mexicali City Hall but that no one was injured.

Alfredo Escobedo, the Baja California state civil protection director, told The Associated Press that one man was killed in a house collapse outside Mexicali. The other man was killed when he panicked as the ground shook, ran into the street and was struck by a car, Mr. Escobedo said.

Across the border from Mexicali, in Calexico, Calif., the police sealed off the downtown area, which is lined with buildings built in the 1930s and ’40s. Broken glass and plaster littered some sidewalks and goods in several stores had been scattered across the floor.

A police officer said the City Council had declared a state of emergency. Some traffic lights were out, and in at least one hotel television sets were flung to the floor and lamps toppled over but the electricity was on and damage did not seem widespread and there were no reports of casualties.

Three strong aftershocks with magnitudes of about 5.0 jolted Baja on Monday, and scores of lesser tremors rippled through the region, according to the United States Geological Survey. There were no reports of additional damage.

Carlton Hargrave, 64, was standing in the entryway of Family Style Buffet when the quake hit on Sunday. His restaurant, he said in a telephone interview, was “almost completely destroyed.”

“We’ve got tables overturned, plates broken on the floor, the ceiling’s caved in,” Mr. Hargrave said with a shaky voice over the sound of his feet crunching rubble and glass. “It was big. I mean, it was major.”

In the United States, the shaking was particularly acute in San Diego, where it set off alarms and sent the San Diego fire department responding to several calls, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

“We have some reports of scattered property damage,” Sgt. Ramona Hastings of the San Diego Police Department said in a telephone interview.