WORLD NEWS Hope dims in Mexico
Rescuers continue work, but no survivors found in rubble since Wednesday
MARIA VERZA
MEXICO CITY — Search teams were still digging in dangerous piles of rubble Monday, hoping against the odds to find survivors at collapsed buildings in Mexico City, where the death toll from the Sept. 19 earthquake rose to 186, and 324 nationwide.
Officials said they had cleared only 103 of Mexico City’s nearly 9,000 schools to reopen Monday.
The need to inspect 98 per cent of the capital’s public and private schools nearly a week after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake was a stark indicator of just how long the path back to normalcy will be.
Federal Education Secretary Aurelio Nuno said it could take a couple more weeks to inspect all of the schools, and the government will announce each day which schools have been cleared to resume classes. For schools found to have structural damage, students could be put in temporary classrooms.
“For the safety of the boys, the girls, the teachers and for the peace of mind, of course, of all the fathers and all the mothers, all schools will be inspected,” Nuno said.
Rescue operations aimed at finding survivors remained active in at least three sites in Mexico City — two apartment buildings and an office building — but hope dimmed every time rescuers had to retreat due to instability of debris. But no one has been found alive since Wednesday, when a woman was pulled from debris.
As darkness fell Sunday, prayers were held by families who have been gathered near the collapsed office hoping missing relatives will be found. A crowd of onlookers watching swelled, and so did the number of volunteer workers.
Hugo Luna, whose cousin Erika Gabriela Albarran was believed to be trapped in the fallen building, complained that officials had not immediately informed families when two bodies were removed Saturday night. “There is a lot of distrust of authorities,” he said.
His aunt, who was also inside the building when the quake hit but escaped, is traumatized, he said.
“Nothing happened to her, but now she has panic attacks,” Luna said. “You open the door, she hears a noise and she gets scared.”
For the family of Adrian Moreno, 26, the emotional roller coaster is getting to be too much. Moreno’s mother had a look of anguish and largely stopped being able to speak. His boyfriend, Dario Hernandez, also looked lost, his gaze tearstained and unfocused.
“Just hearing the earthquake alarm was horrible,” Hernandez said of a siren that rang during a 6.1 quake Saturday morning that was an aftershock of an even bigger temblor that struck in southern Mexico on Sept. 7.
Looking at the huge pile of rubble, Hernandez started to comment. “Something moves and ..,” he said, his voice trailing away at the unspeakable thought that the whole pile could suddenly collapse.
“There is a lot of nervousness, a lot of desperation,” he finally said. “... This is the worst thing I have ever seen in my life, the worst.”
A total of 38 buildings in the Mexican capital — mostly apartment blocks or office buildings — collapsed in Tuesday’s earthquake.
The first days saw a dramatic scramble with picks, shovels and bare hands to reach survivors, and well over 100 were saved.
One by one, the searches have closed down in recent days, after sniffer dogs were sent in and didn’t find life and thermal imaging devices turned up no body heat signatures.