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Federal authorities in Mexico are reporting that the death toll has now increased to 230, with 100 confirmed dead in Mexico City.
Successful rescues, however, are ongoing. Reports suggest that one
77-year-old man, José Luis Ponce, was recently pulled from the rubble
after spending more than 24 hours trapped in a partially collapsed
apartment building.
Luis Carlos Herrera Tome, a 12-year-old who escaped the Enrique Rébsamen school alive, recounted the harrowing experience in an interview with the Associated Press:
“I saw that the ceiling started to break apart so I turned around,” he said.
“I grabbed my friends and we took off running,” he added, showing how
they linked arms. They ran together for another staircase. The building
continued shaking violently and one friend fell on the stairs.
“It moved a lot. I braced myself and cleared like five stairs in one jump,” he said.
Luis Carlos’ 7-year-old brother, Jose Raul Herrera Tome, also escaped
alive from another building in the school. Their mother, Norma Tome,
recounted the aftermath to a reporter:
“’Mom, I saw a girl go down because she was crushed,’” Tome recalled
her younger son telling her after he escaped the building. “He cried a
lot for that and said, ‘I couldn’t save her.’”
When Jose Raul made it to the street he looked back at the school and said, “My brother, my brother,” Tome said.
The brothers hugged when they found each other across the street.
“We cried. He was my biggest worry,” Luis Carlos said.
Read the full account here. Here are some recent images from the ongoing rescue efforts at the school:
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Peña Nieto ordered the evacuation of patients from damaged hospitals amid widespread power cuts and fears of further collapsed buildings from aftershocks.
So many supplies and refreshments have arrived at the Rébsamen school that volunteers are saying: thank you, we're saturated pic.twitter.com/O3yMSwhNET
The White House has released a bit more detail about Donald Trump’s call with president Enrique Peña Nieto,
but not much. Officials said Trump offered “condolences for the lives
lost and damage caused” and further “offered assistance and
search-and-rescue teams, which are being deployed now”.
Trump “pledged to continue close coordination with Mexico as the two countries respond to the recent earthquakes and hurricanes”, the statement added.
And more details from the US Agency for International Development,
which says it will conduct “damage assessments” and coordinate with
“local authorities and aid groups to bring critical assistance to local
people”:
The US Disaster Assistance Response Team (Dart) includes an urban
search-and-rescue team from the Los Angeles county fire department as
well as federal experts with the office of US foreign disaster
assistance.
There appears to be some good news at the collapsed Enrique Rebsámen school. Reporter David Agren,
who is on the scene, says applause has just broken out and that
officials are reporting that there has been a successful rescue.
David Agren (@el_reportero)
A rescue worker holds up a fist, signalling a call for silence at the Enrique Rebsámen school pic.twitter.com/kS8DTRWG7B
There is lots of fist pumping, including from a worker on top of the
rubble being piled into a dump truck, and an ambulance has just arrived,
according to Agren. Some are reporting that it appears two have been
rescued:
CIUDAD (@reformaciudad)
¡Una buena! Tras más de 24 horas de trabajo, rescatistas lograron salvar a dos personas más de entre las ruinas del Colegio #Rébsamenpic.twitter.com/R2QfnNx739
Rescue teams continue to dig people out from under the rubble, in
some cases recovering survivors who have stayed alive for nearly a day
since the earthquake hit.
Jorge Valencia (@jorgeavalencia)
Rescue team just dug a living person out from rubble in one of Mexico City's northern boroughs https://t.co/wa5PYKikxd
Emergency crews, volunteers and bystanders toiled on Wednesday using
dogs, cameras, motion detectors and heat-seeking equipment to detect
victims who may still be alive more than 24-hours after the quake...
Hundreds of neighbors and emergency workers pulled rubble from the
ruins of the school with their bare hands under the glare of floodlights
a full day after the shock. Three survivors were found at around
midnight as volunteer rescue teams known as “moles” crawled deep under
the rubble.”
Television stations broadcast the nailbiting, hours-long rescue
attempt live after crews at the school in the south of the city reported
seeing the girl move her hand. They threaded a hose through debris to
get her water.
The girl’s name was not made public, but her family waited in anguish nearby.
Rescuers moved slowly, erecting makeshift wooden scaffolding to
prevent rubble from crumbling further and seeking a path to the child
through the unstable ruins. They implored bystanders to be quiet to
better hear calls for help.
When Silverio Pérez reached the ruined school, he could still hear
the screams coming from the children trapped beneath the shattered
concrete.
Dozens of people – students and teachers – were still inside the
Enrique Rebsámen school when Tuesday’s magnitude-7.1 earthquake rocked Mexico City, reducing the three-storey building to mound of rubble and twisted metal.
Like many other neighbours, Pérez, a lawyer, rushed to the scene and
started digging at the wreckage with his bare hands. “I heard kids
crying when I got there and saw them hurt. Badly,” said Pérez,
bleary-eyed and disheveled after working through the night.
Officials have revised the total death count from 225 to 223 confirmed fatalities.
Luis Felipe Puente, the national civil defense coordinator who has been
providing official updates, tweeted the new figure at 3.15pm local
time:
That’s 93 in Mexico City, 69 in Morelos state, 43 in Puebla, 13 in the State of Mexico, four in Guerrero and one in Oaxaca.
More official information from the civil defense coordinator:
President Enrique Peña Nieto has arrived in Jojutla, a small town in
the state of Morelos, where he is visiting the worst affected areas and
will coordinate relief and rescue efforts with the state government and
armed forces.
The municipality of Jojutla, which is situated 90km south of the
capital, has around 55,000 inhabitants across several small towns. It
was close to the epicentre of the 7.1 tremor and is one of the hardest
hit areas outside of Mexico City.
At least 14 people are confirmed dead, 300 homes and businesses
destroyed and around 1,500 more damaged by the earthquake, the mayor
said. No building in the town centre escaped damage, according to the
national newspaper Universal. Many buildings are unstable and at risk of
collapse.
La ayuda para Jojutla, Morelos
ha comenzado a salir del Centro de Acopio Campo Marte. Pedimos a toda
la población su apoyo con donaciones. pic.twitter.com/vE23aXXnNE
Mexico is using soccer stadiums as relief centers following the earthquake, including Mexico
City’s Estadio Azteca, according to the AP. The Estadio Azteca was
scheduled to host a match between Chivas and America on Saturday and a
November National Football League game between the New England Patriots
and the Oakland Raiders.
Mexican league president Enrique Bonilla told Fox Sports that “it is a complex decision and all the facts are needed” before a decision is made about scheduling.
Officials have said there was no major damage to the stadium.
This morning, calls for urgent help were made on social media for Xochimilco, one of Mexico
City’s poorest areas, where some reports suggested that numerous people
are trapped under collapsed buildings in the San Marcos, San Gregorio
and Santa Cruz Acalpixca communities.
Sergio Aguyo, a political analyst, wrote on Twitter: “Xochimilco
needs help, provisions and volunteers. There are important damages and
no support has arrived.”
Here are some more details on the ongoing rescue efforts at the at the Enrique Rebsamen school in southern Mexico City, where one child was found alive.
The AP spoke to volunteer rescue worker Pedro Serrano, who managed to
crawl into crevices of the pile of rubble at the school. He made it into
a classroom, but found everyone inside dead:
We saw some chairs and wooden tables. The next thing we saw was a
leg, and then we started to move rubble and we found a girl and two
adults — a woman and a man...
We can hear small noises, but we don’t know if they’re coming from ... the walls above, or someone below calling for help.”
Some workers said Wednesday morning that a teacher and two students had sent text messages from within the rubble, according to Reuters.
Adriana D‘Fargo, 32, had been waiting hours for news of her
seven-year-old, telling a reporter: “They keep pulling kids out, but we
know nothing of my daughter.”
Betty MacDonald Fan Club, founded by Wolfgang Hampel, has members in 40 countries.
Wolfgang Hampel, author of Betty MacDonald biography interviewed Betty MacDonald's family and friends. His Interviews have been published on CD and DVD by Betty MacDonald Fan Club. If you are interested in the Betty MacDonald Biography or the Betty MacDonald Interviews send us a mail, please.
Several original Interviews with Betty MacDonald are available.
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Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honour Members are Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter and described as Kimi in Betty MacDonald's The Plague and I, Betty MacDonald's nephew, artist and writer Darsie Beck, Betty MacDonald fans and beloved authors and artists Gwen Grant, Letizia Mancino, Perry Woodfin, Traci Tyne Hilton, Tatjana Geßler, music producer Bernd Kunze, musician Thomas Bödigheimer, translater Mary Holmes and Mr. Tigerli.
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