Out of the Rubble in Mexico

In Mexico City, officials temporarily suspended rescue operations that have been ongoing since a 7.1-magnitude quake struck the capital on Tuesday.

Rescue efforts were briefly paused after an aftershock hit Saturday morning, with a magnitude of 6.1.

San Gregorio was badly hit by the quake with many collapsed buildings and others in a state of near-collapse.

The powerful quake struck Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the region engaged in natural disaster drills on the 32nd anniversary of a 1985 temblor that claimed thousands of lives in Mexico.

“We already have lives at risk and people in danger, and we can’t have any more added to that”, said the rescue worker who had also pulled people from the ruins during the even more devastating quake that rocked Mexico City on the same day, September 19, 1985.

But authorities called off efforts in the upper-middle class Linda Vista zone, after pulling ten bodies from the rubble, while work at the Tlalpan-based apartment building was briefly halted on Saturday due to a magnitude 6.2 natural disaster that shook southern Mexico and spread fear in the capital.

Colonel Gili, a member of the Israeli delegation of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and engineers, said the chief task has been “Trying to locate survivors.so far without any success but we have been able to find some bodies after the rubble”.

“We’ve been closed since the quake”, said Martha Bertha Martinez, 70, who along with her sister runs a small grocery store in Tlalpan, a southern neighborhood.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department is one of many global aid entities that has deployed its task force to Mexico City to assist in rescue and recovery efforts.

Some workers at Mexico City’s police headquarters are refusing to return to work at the downtown building because of suspected structural damage.

The number of missing has fallen from 200 in the initial count to 42 people who may still be trapped under the rubble of collapsed structures, Puente said.

A total of fifteen dogs were deployed to search for people in the rumbles of Mexico City, but none have as many Twitter fans as Frida.

Pacheco, a recruiter for a human resources and accounting firm, said she sent the messages shortly after the 7.1 magnitude quake struck at 1:14 p.m. on Tuesday. Further southwest, in the Santiago Niltepec municipality of Oaxaca, more than 1,600 homes sustained damage – 1,000 of which will have to be rebuilt because they are uninhabitable, according to Pena Nieto.

As the Chihuahua, now called “Camila”, emerges from the destroyed building bystanders cheer with happiness.

“We remain very motivated, very united”, he said.

Luis Felipe Puente, coordinator of Mexico’s Civil Protection agency, told Reuters that rescuers would continue hand-picking through the debris at four sites until Thursday. She joined one of the aid collection centres that popped up in Mexico City and travelled to Puebla state in one of many convoys flooding from the city to more isolated communities.