Anguish unbearable at school

His tiny frame, pulled from the wreckage, lay over the jagged pieces of what remained of the school. It was his 7-year-old son.

He sat in shock for hours, quietly trying to maintain strength for his 9-year-old daughter, who had escaped the school unharmed. He wondered how to tell her that her younger brother, also named Gustavo, was dead — one of at least 30 children who perished at the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen School.

Screams of anguish rose above the clamor at the school overnight. Parents climbed trees and playground equipment to get a better vantage of the rescue effort, clinging to the hope that their children would emerge unscathed.

Many did, having rushed out before being trapped. Passers-by also had raced to the school immediately to pluck students from its cavities and openings.

But mostly lifeless bodies were pulled out, their names recorded by an army of volunteers keeping lists of the dead.

“To see a parent carry their own dead baby is something I will never forget,” volunteer Elena Villasenor said.

Of the 400 students, it was unclear how many were there when the earthquake struck. In the frantic confusion, the crosscurrents of hundreds of well-meaning personnel sometimes led to frightening miscommunication.

After sifting through the rubble for hours, Florentino Rodriguez García was given a ray of hope: his 9-yearold grandson, Jose Eduardo Huerta Rodriguez, was supposedly fine. A medic told him the boy had been taken to a hospital, but Rodriguez could not find him there.

He headed back to the school, where a nurse took him by the hand and told him the medic had been mistaken. Jose, she said, was trapped inside.

“Please don’t tell me that,” Rodriguez screamed, collapsing into hysterics. “They told me he was out!”

Then, an hour later, a rescuer raised an arm demanding silence, followed by others.

“Jose Eduardo Huerta Rodriguez,” the crowd began to chant.

The boy had been pulled out. He was still alive.