Mexico quake: Strong 6.2-magnitude natural disaster hits Mexico City, monitor says

The death toll from the quake, which hit the center of the country last week by 7.1 on the Richter scale, has risen to 324, Mexican officials said. “But we won’t give up”, said the head of the civil protection service, Luis Felipe Puente. The death toll is still unclear, but at least 300 are dead in Mexico City and surrounding states, according to news reports.

For the family of Adrian Moreno, a missing 26-year-old human resources worker at an accounting firm, the emotional roller coaster is getting to be too much.

She said when the building fell, the force of two floors above collapsing violently knocked her down, but a wall of concrete stopped just short of crushing her and three of her coworkers.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who declared three days of national mourning, has said saving lives is the top priority.

For Alvarez Bravo of the Topos group, whose members helped pull people alive from the debris in Oaxaca, the massive involvement of volunteers in the Mexico City relief effort shows the importance of individuals being ready to act.

Administrative worker Mariana Ramirez said Sunday that she plans to go as far as the sidewalk outside Monday morning, but will not enter. In the wake of 1985’s massively costly natural disaster, the country’s dominant political party was left fragmented, paving the way for a more modern civil society with meaningful building codes, worker protections, and the like.

“So, a smaller quake can cause the damaged buildings to fail”, he said.

“Being at a funeral and seeing all the pain that one minute caused has changed me”, she said.

“Tomorrow I will take my children back to school”, she said, referring to her two sons.”They know that if something happens, they must protect themselves”.

Fifteen people were killed by the eruption when a church collapsed during mass in Atzitzihuacan on the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano.

The country is still reeling from a powerful 7.1 magnitude quake which wreaked havoc on the capital Mexico City as well as several other cities in the center of the country on Tuesday.

Bad weather and aftershocks have slowed the search work, including a 6.1 magnitude quake Saturday centered near Matias Romero in Oaxaca state.

For 17 hours, Martin Mendez was trapped under the wreckage of a Mexico City building, praying to see his 3-year-old daughter again.

At least 115 people have been rescued from the rubble in Mexico City, Mexico’s navy said. “They are all moments that you wouldn’t wish on anyone”. “Now.” We were desperate to get in touch with my cousin, who was in school on the other side of the city.

“Here we have no help, everything is in the centre (of the city)”, said Justina Gonzalez, 55, a shopkeeper in the Xochimilco district in the south of the city.