Efforts under way to aid earthquake victims Over 2 million people have been affected by Thursday's quake

Efforts under way to aid earthquake victims

Over 2 million people have been affected by Thursday's quake

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Mexico News Daily | Monday, September 11, 2017

As donations are being gathered by various organizations and individuals to assist the victims of last Thursday’s earthquake in southern Mexico the government has announced it will withhold further aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

It was unclear how much aid Mexico sent but the Foreign Affairs Secretariat said today that it was suspending shipments due to domestic needs caused by the earthquake and Hurricane Katia, which struck Veracruz on Saturday.

Authorities estimate that at least 2.3 million people have been affected by the earthquake, which claimed 96 lives, according to the latest figures. The government of Chiapas says 40,000 homes have been damaged; in Oaxaca the number is 12,000.

The national office of the DIF family services agency says earthquake victims in Oaxaca and Chiapas need goods such as blankets and bedding, clothing and shoes, food products including tuna, beans, sardines, powdered milk, water, cereal, biscuits, instant coffee and health care items such as soap, sanitary towels, tooth brushes and toothpaste.

The Red Cross said yesterday it had shipped more than 40,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the two states most affected by the 8.2-magnitude quake.

The organization has sent 250 paramedics and 500 volunteers to deliver supplies, joining 1,500 volunteers already working in Oaxaca.

Mexico City has also joined donors by sending 32.5 tonnes of supplies donated by citizens at the donation center installed in the zócalo, a shipment sent with support from the Federal Police.

On the weekend, the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) announced a US $200,000 donation to aid earthquake victims and the allocation of loan funds to Mexico of up to $100 million to rebuild infrastructure.

Here are some locations that are taking donations.

Mexico City

• Fundación Milenio, Avenida Morelos 16, between Balderas and Bucareli
• UNAM: Estadio Olímpico 9:00am till 5:00pm.
• Home of Natalia Toledo, Avenida Mazatlán #5, entry S, apartment 2, corner of Juan de la Barrera in Condesa.
• El Centro Cultural Macario Matus, Edificio Guanajuato, in front of Jardín Santiago, in Tlatelolco.
• Avenida Coyoacán #939, Colonia del Valle in Benito Juárez, between Ángel Urraza and Matías Romero.
• Calle Dr. Atl #196, in Santa María la Ribera, 2:30pm until 10:00pm.
• Calle Guanábana #201, interior C, Nueva Santa María in Azcapotzalco.
• Zócalo, Centro Histórico.
• Calle Montes Urales #800, Lomas de Virreyes in Miguel Hidalgo.
• Almacenes #74, in Tlatelolco, Guanajuato building, Cuauhtémoc.
• Calle Lago Wetter, corner of Lago Ginebra, Miguel Hidalgo.
• Various campuses of Monterrey Tec.

Oaxaca

• DIF volunteers’ offices, Avenida Juárez #914, in Centro.
• Oaxaca Congress, Calle 14 Oriente #1, San Raymundo Jalpan.
• DIF of Oaxaca, Calle Vicente Guerrero #114, Miguel Alemán.
• Gimnasio Flores Magón, Calle Derechos Humanos, corner of Privada de Brasil, América Sur.
• El Universal newspaper, Calle Dalias #1010, corner of Avenida Fuerza Aérea Mexicana, Reforma.

Chiapas

• Any state or municipal DIF office.

Puebla

• Calle 25 Sur #905, La Paz, Puebla.

Red Cross

Donations of personal and home hygiene products are accepted at offices in Polanco, Toluca, Oaxaca and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, as well as Walmart, Superama and Supercenter stores. Cash donations can be made to account #0404040406 at BBVA Bancomer.

Starbucks

Donations accepted at any Starbucks café: non-perishable foods, bottled water, personal hygiene products, clothing, blankets.

Cash donations

• Banorte, 066 900 6667
• Citibanamex and Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation 1×1 campaign, in which donations will be matched peso for peso. Account 23, branch 100 in the name of Fomento Social Banamex. Clabe for electronic transfers is 002 180 010 000 000 235.

Earthquake devastates Oaxaca’s Mixe region In one municipality, 300 homes damaged, dozens destroyed

Earthquake devastates Oaxaca’s Mixe region

In one municipality, 300 homes damaged, dozens destroyed

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Mexico News Daily | Monday, September 11, 2017

The Mixe region of Oaxaca.

At least 15 municipalities in the Mixe region of Oaxaca have been devastated by last Thursday’s earthquake.

The head of a local organization called Servicios del Pueblo Mixe (Services for the Mixe People) said the situation has been complicated by heavy rainfall in the region for more than seven days.

Adelfo Regino Montes said highways have been severely damaged, hundreds of homes have collapsed, crops have been lost and electrical service knocked out.

Of 300 homes damaged by the 8.2-magnitude earthquake in Santiago Zacatepec, dozens have been completely destroyed.

Residents are only now just recovering after a storm ripped the roofs off many homes, leaving them partially or completely destroyed, Montes said.

Donations for citizens of the Mixe region, located in the eastern highlands of the state, are being accepted at three locations in Oaxaca city: Calle Cosijoeza 113, corner of Libres; in the zócalo; and in front of the Monte Albán convention center.

Source: El Universal (sp)

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The owner of the Hotel del Río in Juchitán perished inside.

Aftershocks continue in Chiapas, Oaxaca More than 1,100 have followed Thursday's massive earthquake 0

Aftershocks continue in Chiapas, Oaxaca

More than 1,100 have followed Thursday's massive earthquake

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Mexico News Daily | Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Continuing aftershocks in Oaxaca and Chiapas are making things difficult for census takers trying to evaluate the damages to buildings after last Thursday’s massive earthquake.

Interior Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong said today that a damage census would be complete by the end of the week regardless.

The concern is that buildings will sustain further damages as a result of the aftershocks, of which there have been more than 1,100 since Thursday.

A temblor measuring 5.6 at 4:09pm yesterday caused a cell phone tower to topple from the roof of a three-story building and land in the street in the Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Epicenter of the quake was 126 kilometers from Tonalá.

In Juchitán on Saturday, a three-story building fell into the street, a day and a half after the 8.2-magnitude quake that has killed 96 people.

In Oaxaca yesterday, army personnel began to demolish buildings that were beyond repair in the municipalities of Ixtaltepec and Juchitán. Federal officials have confirmed that 12,000 homes have been damaged in the state, and that 971 of them had been completely destroyed.

The federal government has announced that funds will be provided to employ residents of affected areas in cleanup operations and rebuilding.

Other structures affected by the quake are schools and churches. State Governor Alejandro Murat said yesterday that damage has been reported in 402 schools; in 60 the damages are severe. Seventy-eight churches were affected, he said.

The total number of victims in Oaxaca is now estimated at more than 800,000.

As of yesterday, 8,000 people were still without electricity.

Efforts to locate victims in the rubble in Juchitán continue with a canine unit of the Navy Secretariat. A marine said yesterday they had recovered 12 victims who were still alive. Another 41 were dead.

In Chiapas, reports indicate damage has been far more extensive. As of late yesterday, the state’s Civil Protection office said 1.47 million people had been affected by the earthquake and nearly 18,000 families are staying with relatives or in temporary shelters.

Homes that sustained damages number 40,633; 6,000 of those were destroyed, chiefly in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Tonalá, Parral and Chiapilla.

Also affected are 1,000 schools, 48 health sector facilities, 29 public buildings, 52 churches, 106 business premises, numerous highways and 11 bridges.

Death toll now at 90 as aftershocks rattle southern Mexico

Death toll now at 90 as 

aftershocks rattle southern 

Mexico

 
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Men work to pull down a remaining section of roof as they demolish a home destroyed by Thursday's magnitude 8.1 earthquake, in Asuncion Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sunday, September 10, 2017, 10:15 PM

JUCHITAN, Mexico (AP) — Life for many has moved outdoors in the quake-shocked city of Juchitan, where a third of the homes are reported uninhabitable and repeated aftershocks have scared people away from many structures still standing.

The city on Sunday was littered with rubble from Thursday night's magnitude 8.1 earthquake, which killed at least 90 people across southern Mexico — at least three dozen of them in Juchitan itself.

Officials in Oaxaca and Chiapas states said thousands of houses and hundreds of schools had been damaged or destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people were reported to be without water service.

Many people continued to sleep outside, fearful of more collapses, as strong aftershocks continued to rattle the town, including a magnitude 5.2 jolt early Sunday.

Some Juchitecos seeking solace trekked through the destruction to find an open-air Mass on Sunday since many of the churches were either damaged or left vacant until they could be checked.

On Sunday evening, Bishop Oscar Campos Contreras conducted Mass for about 200 people at an open-air basketball court next to a collapsed school and in front of the heavily damaged St. Vicente Ferrer church, which lost one bell tower and very nearly the other.

Campos told those gathered that Mass would continue to be held outdoors for the foreseeable future, "because here we feel safer."

Friends and family embraced and cried, overcome with emotion stored for days.

The bishop's homily was part lesson and part pep talk for a community stunned by the destruction.

Josue Tolentino Gomez, 11, stands beside his family's home, where he was trapped under the rubble for an hour before being rescued when part of the structure collapsed during Thursday's magnitude 8.1 earthquake, in Juchitan, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

"There is no one who can say: 'Nothing happened to me because of my money, because of my strength or my youth or my prestige or my fame nothing happened,'" Campos said. "We are all weak."

Yesenia Cruz Jimenez was relieved to hear Mass would be held outdoors. Her house broke apart and her family is still sleeping in the yard, suffering rain and aftershocks.

"There is nowhere safe in town," she said. "It is safer here and people can concentrate better in this place."

Local officials said they had counted nearly 800 aftershocks of all sizes since the big quake, and the U.S. Geological Survey counted nearly 60 with a magnitude of 4.5 or greater.

Oaxaca Gov. Alejandro Murat said Sunday that the death toll in his state had risen to 71, while officials have reported 19 killed in Chiapas and Tabasco states.

Juchitan's downtown streets grew increasingly congested Sunday as dump trucks and heavy equipment hauled away debris and pushed smaller piles of debris into larger mountains of rubble.

Teams of soldiers and federal police with shovels and sledgehammers fanned out across neighborhoods to help demolish damaged buildings. Volunteers, many teens from religious or community groups in surrounding towns that were not as severely hit, turned out in force to distribute water and clothing or lend a hand.

Help was slower to arrive in Union Hidalgo, a town of about 20,000 people about 30 minutes to the east. Collapsed homes pocked neighborhoods there, and the town lacked electricity, water and cellphone service.

Men walk across the bridge that connects Juchitan to Union Hidalgo in Oaxaca state, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. While the bridge survived Thursday's magnitude 8.1 earthquake, the road leading up to each side fissured and the supporting walls buckled. Wary of using the bridge, taxis are now waiting on either side to ferry passengers, who cross the bridge on foot. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Delia Cruz Valencia stood in a puddle-filled street overseeing demolition of what remained of her sister's house next door. Her sister took their mother for medical treatment outside the city before the earthquake and had not been able to make her way back. Men with pry bars ripped away the bottom half of a brick and stucco exterior wall to rescue a large wooden wardrobe because the house was too unstable to access through the door.

Cruz said she was next door with her two daughters when the earthquake struck shortly before midnight Thursday.

"We all three hugged, but even so we were moving. We were pushed from here to there" by the rolling earth, she said.

When she reached the street, she saw a cloud of dust rising from the house her sister shared with their mother. Cruz's great-grandfather had built it a century ago.

"If my sister had been here, she wouldn't have been found alive," Cruz said, choking back tears.

Mexico's education secretary, Aurelio Nuno, announced that schools will remain closed Monday in Oaxaca and Chiapas.

Back in Juchitan, the general hospital has settled into a temporary home at a school gymnasium, with gurneys parked atop the basketball court.

The hospital's regular building was damaged. Maria Teresa Sales Alvarez said it was "chaos" when the earthquake struck the single-story building, but staff moved patients outside and transferred most of those who required specialized care to other facilities.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.