Leveled city digs for survivors
JUCHITÁN ZARAGOZA, Mexico — Under the glare of portable floodlights and the flashlights that some held, men in sweat-soaked jumpsuits dug into a hillock of rubble in this city, the night after the largest earthquake to hit Mexico in a century flattened buildings here and across the southern part of the country.
Atop the mound of debris, the men at times moved like archaeologists, sifting with bare, dirt-encrusted hands, chunk by concrete chunk. At other times, they powered up an excavator, which, with its own brutish precision, moved the workers closer to their goal.
There was a man under there — perhaps alive, perhaps dead.
Throughout Friday, victims were pulled from the ruins of homes, shops and offices in Juchitán de Zaragoza, a city of 100,000 in Oaxaca State: at least 36 dead, more than 300 injured.
The earthquake, which was felt as far north as Mexico City, more than 300 miles away, had killed at DEleast 61 people across southern Mexico as of Saturday morning. But no place had lost more than Juchitán.
President Enrique Peña Nieto, seeking to soothe the nation, visited the city Friday afternoon.
“Indeed, the strength of this earthquake was devastating, but we are also certain that the strength of unity, the strength of solidarity and the strength of shared responsibility will be greater,” Mr. Peña Nieto said in a statement.
The earthquake that struck was more powerful than the one in 1985 that killed about 10,000 people, many in Mexico City. Thursday’s quake, however, was farther from Mexico City and more directly affected a far less populated region of Mexico, leading to a significantly lower casualty total.
But nearly a full day later, there was one last person to try to save in the city.
The rubble the rescue workers were digging through had once been the city hall, and trapped inside was a 36-year-old police officer, Juan Jiménez, who for 18 years had stood guard there. He was now buried under a story of wreckage, on the ground where he last stood. Finding him would allow the city to move from the rescue phase to repair and recovery. The search for him would continue until close to midnight Friday, then resume at dawn on Saturday.
“This becomes part of our history,” said Scherezada Gómez, 45, a high school teacher who was among about 150 residents who clustered behind yellow police tape late Friday, watching the painstaking search unfold. “With a lot of faith we will overcome this.”
Much of the city was still without electricity or running water.
On Saturday, the residents watched the search in a kind of silent vigil. Quiet was essential: The rescuers trained their ears for any sign of life in the wreckage.
Then, the missing officer’s relatives received word that Mr. Jiménez had been found. He was dead.