Mexico mourns 66 dead after twin punch of earthquake, hurricane

HIGHLIGHTS
Amid the sounds of snare drums, saxophones and
sobbing, Mexicans today began mourning some of
the 66 dead after a one-two punch from a monster
earthquake and a Gulf coast hurricane.
Hardest hit was Juchitan, a Oaxaca state city where
36 people died when the magnitude 8.1 quake
toppled buildings.
Slow-moving funeral processions converged on one
of Juchitan's cemeteries from all directions today
sometimes causing temporary gridlock when they
encountered each other at intersections. The
cemetery swelled with mourners and noisy
serenades for the dead. Pallbearers carried the
caskets around rubble the quake had knocked from
the simple concrete crypts.
Jittery amid continued aftershocks, friends and
relatives of the deceased had hushed conversations
in the Zapotec language as they stood under
umbrellas for shade from the beating sun.
Paulo Cesar Escamilla Matus and his family held a
memorial service for his mother, Reynalda Matus
Martinez, in the living room of her home, where
relatives quietly wept beside her body.
The 64-year-old woman was working the night shift
at a neighborhood pharmacy when the quake struck
Thursday night, collapsing the building.
"All the weight of the second floor fell on top of
her," said her son, who rushed to the building and
found her under rubble.
He and neighbors tried to dig her out, but weren't
able to recover her body until the next morning
when civil defense workers brought a backhoe that
could lift what had trapped her.
Fearful of crime, the pharmacy kept its doors
locked, and Escamilla Matus wondered if that had
cost his mother the time she needed to escape.
Scenes of mourning were repeated over and over
again in Juchitan, where a third of the city's homes
collapsed or were uninhabitable, President Enrique
Pena Nieto said late on Friday in an interview with
the Televisa news network. Part of the city hall
collapsed.
FAMILIES SPEND SECOND ANXIOUS NIGHT
SLEEPING OUTDOORS
The remains of brick walls and clay tile roofs
cluttered streets as families dragged mattresses
onto sidewalks to spend a second anxious night
sleeping outdoors.
Some were newly homeless, while others feared
further aftershocks could topple their cracked adobe
dwellings.
Rescuers searched for survivors with sniffer dogs
and used heavy machinery at the main square to
pull rubble away from city hall, where a missing
police officer was believed to be inside.
The city's civil defense coordinator, Jose Antonio
Marin Lopez, said similar searches had been going
on all over the area.
Teams found bodies in the rubble, but the highlight
was pulling four people, including two children, alive
from the completely collapsed Hotel Del Rio, where
one woman died.
"The priority continues to be the people," Marin
said.
Larissa Garcia Ruiz was grateful to escape with only
a broken arm when her house collapsed as she and
her family slept.
"I only woke up when I heard screaming," said the
24- year-old cradling her wrapped arm.
Her mother managed to just push the daughters and
her blind husband through the back doorway before
a massive section of thick wall fell, trapping her.
As Larissa tried to help rescue her mother, another
piece of rubble fell, breaking her arm. Other
relatives and friends finally managed to release the
trapped woman.
All around them people yelled for help that night.
"Nobody helped us," her sister Vicenta said.
"Everybody got out as best they could."
In addition to the deaths in Juchitan, nine other
people died in Oaxaca, while twenty-five people
were killed by the quake in neighboring states. Two
others died in a mudslide in the Gulf coast state of
Veracruz after Hurricane Katia hit late yesterday.
Pena Nieto said authorities were working to re-
establish supplies of water and food and provide
medical attention to those who need it. He vowed
the government would help rebuild.
428 HOMES DESTROYED AND 1,700 DAMAGED IN
CHIAPAS
Power was cut at least briefly to more than 1.8
million people due to the quake, and authorities
closed schools in at least 11 states to check them
for safety.
The Interior Department reported that 428 homes
were destroyed and 1,700 were damaged just in
Chiapas, the state closest to the epicenter.
Just one day later, Hurricane Katia hit land north of
Tecolutla in Veracruz state, pelting the region with
intense rains and maximum sustained winds of 120
kmph.
Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes said two
people died in a mudslide related to the storm, and
he said some rivers had risen to near flood stage,
but there were no reports of major damage.
Veracruz and neighboring Puebla states evacuated
more than 4,000 people ahead of the storm's arrival.
The Hurricane Center said Katia could still bring 7.5
to 15 centimeters of additional rain 25 to 37
centimeters to a region with a history of deadly
mudslides and flooding.

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