Mexico races to rescue quake survivors
>> JUCHITAN: Police, soldiers and emergency workers raced to rescue survivors from the ruins of Mexico’s most powerful earthquake in a century, which killed at least 61 people, as storm Katia menaced the country’s east yesterday.
In the southern region hit hardest by the quake, emergency workers looked for survivors — or bodies — in the rubble of houses, churches and schools that were torn apart in the 8.1-magnitude quake.
President Enrique Pena Nieto said 45 people were killed in Oaxaca, 12 in Chiapas and four in Tabasco. But the actual death toll could be more than 80, according to figures reported by state officials.
Meanwhile, storm Katia made landfall in the east as a Category 1 hurricane and hours later was downgraded to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70kph.
The storm was bringing rains likely to cause “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially in areas of mountainous terrain” the US National Hurricane Center said.
Katia was lashing the state of Veracruz, which borders the Gulf of Mexico, as well as parts of Hidalgo and Puebla. Forecasters were predicting the storm could unleash upwards of 65cm of rain in some areas.
Adding to the concerns, authorities warned a massive aftershock could follow the first quake.
Mr Pena toured the hardest-hit city, Juchitan in Oaxaca state, where at least 36 bodies were pulled from the ruins.
The city’s eerily quiet streets were a maze of rubble, with roofs, cables, insulation and concrete chunks scattered everywhere.
A crowd had formed at Juchitan’s partially collapsed town hall, a Spanish colonial building where two policemen were trapped in the rubble.
Rescuers managed to extract one and were still working to save the other 18 hours after the quake.
“God, let him come out alive!” said a woman watching as four cranes and a fleet of trucks removed what remained of the building’s crumbled wing.
His blue uniform covered in dust, Vidal Vera, 29, was one of around 300 police officers digging through the rubble. “I can’t remember an earthquake this terrible,” he said.
“The whole city is a disaster zone right now. Lots of damage. Lots of deaths. I don’t know how you can make sense of it. It’s hard. My sister-in-law’s husband died. His house fell on top of him.”
The president described the quake as “the largest registered in our country in at least the past 100 years” — stronger even than a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico City.
More than 200 people were injured across Mexico, officials said.
Four people were also injured in Guatemala, where President Jimmy Morales ordered urgent humanitarian assistance.
The epicentre of the quake, which hit late Thursday, was in the Pacific Ocean, about 100km off the town of Tonala in Chiapas.