Race against time to rescue Mexico’s trapped quake victims
Patrick Timmons
Barney Henderson
MEXICO waited anxiously yesterday for signs of life in the rubble of collapsed buildings as a desperate search for survivors of a devastating earthquake continued into a fourth day.
Rescuers were trying to save an adult believed to be still trapped in a Mexico City school that collapsed in the devastating earthquake.
Throughout the day, the country had been gripped by efforts to save a 12-year-old girl. However, last night, officials said that all the pupils had been accounted for, either alive or dead, and that the search was now focused on an unnamed adult survivor.
Ángel Enrique Sarmiento, undersecretary for the navy, said 19 children and six adults had died in the Enrique Rebsamen school collapse. Eleven children were rescued. Mexico’s navy was leading search and rescue efforts at the site. Residents woke yesterday to survey the full extent of the destruction from the 7.1 quake that struck on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 272 people, nearly half of them in the capital.
Rescue efforts have been ceaseless and often chaotic as ordinary Mexicans try to help, with lists of survivors and the dead difficult to obtain. Many have turned to social media to advise about missing family members.
But time is running out. Experts say the average survival time in such conditions and depending on injuries is 72 hours. At the Enrique Rebsamen school in the south of the city, which has become a focal point, rescuers in the early morning dug out the lifeless body of a 58-year-old female teacher.
Their focus during the day had been the plight of a girl identified as Frida Sofia, who was said to have been located alive under the rubble and became a symbol for the hopes of thousands of rescuers working around the clock. Rescuers at the site spoke of the girl, with some saying she had reported five more children alive in the same space.
Yet no family members emerged to confirm they were students there. Highlighting the confusion that still reigned two days after the quake, authorities last night denied the girl existed.
“We have done an accounting with school officials and we are certain all the children either died, unfortunately, are in hospitals or are safe at their homes,” said Mr Sarmiento last night.
Tuesday’s tremor struck two hours after Mexico held a national earthquake drill, as it does every Sept 19 to remember a 1985 quake that killed tens of thousands. There were outpourings of support yesterday for Mexico City and the other affected districts of Morelos and Puebla. Collection centres were set up for people to contribute food, medicine, tents and other supplies.
Enrique Peña Nieto, the president, toured the hardest-hit areas and declared three days of national mourning. In Morelos, south of the city, where 73 people were killed, one family of 11 were killed while celebrating a baptism as the church collapsed around them.
At least 60 of the 100 or so damaged or destroyed buildings in Mexico City were residences. In the hip Roma neighbourhood of the city, volunteers yesterday gathered around the Álvaro Obregón building, where 36 people were believed to be trapped. As hopes dwindled, authorities were increasing calls to use mechanical diggers. They faced opposition from the Topos rescuers, who formed as a volunteer group in the aftermath of the 1985 quake, and who are famous for burrowing tunnels by propping up the concrete. They fear survivors might be crushed.
There have been hopeful reports of life amid the chaos. Jessica Mendoza was in the middle of labour in a hospital in the Roma neighbourhood as the earthquake struck. After being evacuated from the hospital, a “miracle” baby boy was delivered on a nearby bench. “The world was falling around us and he came to save ours,” said Amado Ortiz, her husband.