POWERFUL QUAKE KILLS 226 IN MEXICO
MEXICO CITY— A powerful earthquake shook central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing buildings in plumes of dust and killing at least 226 people. Thousands fled into the streets in panic, and many stayed to help rescue those trapped.
Rescuers and volunteers frantically dug through the rubble of collapsed schools, homes and apartment buildings long into the night, looking for survivors of Mexico’s deadliest earthquake since 1985.
Adding poignancy and a touch of the surreal, the 7.1magnitude quake struck on the 32nd anniversary of the earlier temblor that killed thousands and came just two hours after earthquake drills were held across Mexico to mark the date.
One of the most desperate rescue efforts was at a primary and secondary school in southern Mexico City, where a wing of the three-story building collapsed into a massive pancake of concrete floor slabs.
School wreckage
The federal Education Department reported late on Tuesday night that 25 bodies had been recovered from the school’s wreckage, all but four of them children. It was not clear whether the deaths were included in the overall death toll of 226 reported by the federal civil defense agency.
During a visit to the site ear- lier in the night, President Enrique Peña Nieto had reported 22 bodies found and said 30 children and eight adults were reported missing at that point.
Neighborhood volunteers, police and firefighters used trained dogs and their bare hands to search through the school’s rubble. Reports swept through the crowd of anxious parents outside the gates that relatives in two families had received Whatsapp messages from girls trapped inside, but that could not be confirmed.
The rescue work was punctuated by cries of “quiet” so searchers could listen for any faint calls for help.
The US Geological Survey said the 7.1-magnitude quake hit at 1:14 p.m. (2:15 p.m. EDT) and was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 123 kilometers southeast of Mexico City.
Muchof Mexico City is built on former lakebed, and the soil can amplify the effects of earthquakes centered hundreds of miles away.
The quake appeared to be unrelated to the 8.1-magnitude temblor that hit Sept. 7 off Mexico’s southern coast and also was felt strongly in the capital.
State of disaster
The federal government declared a state of disaster in Mexico City, freeing up emergency funds. Peña Nieto said he had ordered all hospitals to open their doors to the injured.
In a video message released late on Tuesday, Peña Nieto urged people to be calm and said authorities were moving to provide help as 40 percent of Mexico City and 60 percent of nearby Morelos state were without power.
“The priority at this moment is to keep rescuing people who are still trapped and to give medical attention to the injured people,” he said.
US President Donald Trump tweeted: “God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.”
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was saddened by the deaths and damage resulting from the earthquake.
Guterres extended his condolences to the government and people of Mexico and wished those injured a speedy recovery, according to a statement released by his spokesperson. The statement said the United Nations stood ready to assist Mexico following the quake.
Rescue in capital
People across central Mexico already had rallied to help their neighbors as dozens of buildings tumbled into mounds of rubble. Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said buildings fell at 44 sites in the capital alone as highrises across the city swayed and twisted.
Mancera said 50 to 60 people were rescued alive by citizens and emergency workers in the capital.
The official Twitter feed of Luis Felipe Puente, head of the Civil Defense agency, said 117 dead had been counted in Mexico City and 55 in Morelos state, which is just south of the capital. It said 39 were known dead in Puebla state, where the quake was centered. Twelve deaths were listed in the State of Mexico, which surrounds Mexico City on three sides, and three in Guerrero state.
At the site of a collapsed apartment building in Mexico City, rescuers worked atop a three-story pile of rubble, forming a human chain that passed pieces of rubble across four city blocks to a site where they were dumped.
Throughout the day, rescuers pulled dust-covered people, some barely conscious, some seriously injured, from about three dozen collapsed buildings. At one site, shopping carts commandeered from a nearby supermarket were used to carry water to the rescue site and take rubble away.
Recovery sites
As night began to fall, huge floodlights lit up the recovery sites, but workers and volunteers begged for headlamps.
Ricardo Ibarra, 48, who experienced the 1985 quake said there hadn’t been anything like it until now.
Wearing a bright orange vest and carrying a backpack with a sleeping bag strapped to it, he said he and some friends came to help.
“People are very sensitive because today was the 32nd anniversary of a tragedy,” he said.
Buildings also collapsed in Morelos state, including the town hall and local church in Jojutla near the quake’s epicenter. A dozen people died in Jojutla.
The town’s Instituto Morelos secondary school partly collapsed, but school director Adelina Anzures said the earthquake drill held in the morning came in handy.