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WORLD NEWS Monday 25 SepteMber 2017

In Mexico City, hopes of finding quake survivors dwindle

By MARIA VERZA on the south side where
Associated Press searchers were looking for
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Five five people.
days after the deadly mag- Expert search teams that
nitude 7.1 earthquake, the flew in from Japan, the
hulking wreckage of what United States and Israel
used to be a seven-story have worked alongside
office building is one of the their Mexican counterparts
last hopes: one of just two this week to help tunnel,
sites left where searchers measure and direct the
believe they may still find removal of chunks of con-
someone trapped alive in crete.At the Roma Norte
Mexico City. site, after Saturday’s after-
Among the families of the shock passed, work began
missing, there are periodic again, grim, controlled,
moments when spirits lift. purposeful. An enormous
A flurry of activity, or rela- crane lifted huge chunks
tives are summoned to the of concrete slab. Previ-
search site, raising hopes ously rescuers carved rein-
that someone has been forced vertical tunnels into
found. the heart of the wreckage,
But despair deepens when and from there crawled
the work slows or even A Mexican soldier raises his arm as a sign for people to maintain silence during search for sur- into the narrow, claustro-
stops, when rain or an af- vivors inside a felled office building brought down by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake, in the Roma phobic horizontal spaces
tershock threatens the sta- Norte neighborhood of Mexico City, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017. left between the collapsed
bility of the tottering pile, Associated Press floors.q
and as day after day pass-
es without their loved ones
emerging. apartment blocks or office habitable — and the num-
For the family of Adrian buildings — collapsed in ber seemed likely to rise as
Moreno, a missing 26-year- the Sept. 19 earthquake, more are inspected.
old human resources work- and the first days saw a Mancera also said Satur-
er at an accounting firm, dramatic scramble with day night on Twitter that
the emotional roller coaster picks, shovels and bare nearly 17,000 people have
is getting to be too much. hands to reach survivors. been “attended to” at
Moreno’s mother has a look Mexican marines, the lead 48 shelters, though it’s not
of anguish and has largely force in many of the res- clear how many of those
stopped being able to cue efforts, said they had are being housed there.
speak. His boyfriend, Dario recovered 102 bodies and Many are bunking with
Hernandez, also looks lost, rescued 115 people alive family or friends.
his gaze tear-stained and from buildings toppled by One by one the searches
unfocused.“Just hearing the quake, which has killed have closed down in re-
the earthquake alarm was 319 people including 181 in cent days, after sniffer
horrible,” Hernandez said the capital alone, accord- dogs were sent in and
of a siren that rang during ing to the latest death toll didn’t find life and thermal
a 6.1 quake Saturday that announced Sunday. imaging devices turned up
was an aftershock of an Thousands more have been no body heat signatures.
even earlier and bigger left homeless because their Then heavy machinery
temblor on Sept. 7. houses or apartment build- moved in to begin remov-
“Something moves and ...” ings, while still standing, ing the mountains of de-
he said, his voice trailing have been rendered too bris. Empty lots began to
away at the unspeakable dangerous to remain. appear where just days
thought the whole pile Mexico City Mayor Miguel ago a building stood.
could suddenly collapse. Angel Mancera reported Now hopes were focused
“There is a lot of nervous- that 7,649 properties have solely on concrete slabs at
ness, a lot of desperation. been examined and 87 two sites: the former office
... This is the worst thing I percent of those are safe block in the Roma Norte
have ever seen in my life, and require only minor neighborhood, where
the worst.” repairs. But that means around 40 people were
A total of 38 buildings in the about 1,000 left standing believed to be missing,
Mexican capital — mostly have been deemed unin- and an apartment building