21/09/2017
It has been a strange and sad day here in Mexico City. Any location scouting has been out of the question; rescue operations are still going on throughout the area where I’m staying. More buildings collapsed this evening, severely weakened by yesterday’s quake. So far as I know, they were already evacuated so no new deaths have been reported but the death toll keeps rising inexorably from yesterday. Power came back on in my neighborhood about 3AM this morning and Mexican television is covering the rescue operations live; I just watched another survivor found among the twisted ruins of an apartment building almost 30 hours after the quake hit. Networks have set up TV lights in many areas to help illuminate the rescue activity; it seems strange to see 10K film lights coopted for such use. A heavy thunderstorm broke over the city on the way back to my hotel a short while ago, complicating the work of the professional rescue teams and volunteers even more.
I think what impresses me most is the way the whole city has rallied around the rescue efforts. Open plazas and squares are set aside as collection sites for supplies urgently needed and everyone is bringing what they can. Where I’m based is one of the worst areas for destruction in Mexico City – La Roma District – and the streets have been full all day of people anxious to help, many in hard hats and carrying pick axes and spades. When my friend Anders was working on one of the collapsed apartment buildings yesterday, the military and heavy equipment hadn’t yet arrived and neighborhood volunteers organized themselves into bucket chains, removing debris and shattered concrete with their bare hands. Now things are better organized and the authorities (police and military) send volunteers from site to site where they’re most needed. Because of the danger of further collapse, many of the streets have been closed off and traffic is chaotic, taxis and private cars jostle with ambulances, army trucks and rescue vehicles. Everywhere throughout this area locals have set up tables on the street with free food and water for the volunteers and anyone who needs it.
The mood on the streets is a bit surreal, very calm but with a heightened sense of overall tension. Many bars and restaurants are closed but others are open and packed, locals eating dinner and drinking beer and wine just a short distance from collapsed buildings where the dead are still being found and removed. People stand around quietly, waiting to be of use, although if something new happens there may be a surge of people running towards it. The collapses are so localized, one building pancaking into total collapse while buildings on either side are untouched. Since last night, vehicles with loud speakers have toured the streets, giving information about assembly points and asking for urgently-needed supplies. I’ve met people who were forced to evacuate their buildings in a hurry and now can’t return; the buildings are unsafe and may need to be demolished; they may never be able to return to collect their most precious belongings. Some stay with friends, others remain out on the streets; a plaza we visited earlier had tents pitched between the distribution tables.
The death toll now stands at 230 but there’s no doubt it will rise. I find myself feeling very helpless, wanting to pitch in and help the rescue operations but knowing that a 71-year-old man with no Spanish would only be in the way; my friends here have made this very clear. This is a sobering time, a realization that no matter how carefully one plans a location scout or a life, everything can change in an instant. And for so many people here in Mexico City, life changed in an instant yesterday afternoon.
