PANAMA CITY, Oct. 15 -- Six days after what UNICEF calls the country's most significant earthquake of the century so far, Panama has reported one death, and families are still sleeping outdoors for fear of aftershocks. What no agency has yet produced is a single account of how bad it is: the UN, UNICEF, the health authorities and the government are counting the same disaster with different numbers.

The first figure to diverge is the quake itself. The Institute of Geosciences of the University of Panama put it at magnitude 7.5, at a depth of 4 kilometers. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated 7.7. UNICEF and the UN's humanitarian office both use 7.5 in their reports on the Panama earthquake. The two come from different networks and methods...