Rescuers dig for Mexico quake survivors as deadly storm strikes

Homeless and bereaved, hundreds of Mexican families camped in the streets as rescuers raced Saturday to find survivors from an earthquake that killed at least 61 people, while elsewhere storm Katia unleashed floods and mudslides that killed two.

In the southern region hit hardest by the quake, emergency workers looked for survivors -- or bodies -- in the rubble of homes, churches and schools that were torn apart in the 8.1-magnitude quake -- said to be the most powerful to hit Mexico in a century.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said 61 people were killed overall in Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco states. But the actual death toll could be more than 80, according to figures reported by state officials.

- Looting fears -

In the city hardest hit by the quake, Juchitan in Oaxaca, victims of the quake spent the night in shelters, fearing their abandoned homes would be looted.

The church, town hall and school were in ruins.

"We are in a terrible dilemma," said Hector Aguilar, a 52-year-old history teacher, settling down for the night on a sidewalk with his wife and two daughters aged nine and 13.

"If we stay in our house, there could be another quake and it will fall on us. But if we go to the shelters, the looters come and take what little we have left."

- Disaster zone -

Pena Nieto toured Juchitan, where at least 36 bodies were pulled from the ruins.

The city's eerily quiet streets were a maze of rubble, with roofs, cables, insulation and concrete chunks scattered everywhere.

A crowd had formed at Juchitan's partially collapsed town hall, a Spanish colonial building where two policemen were trapped in the rubble.

   Rescuers managed to extract one and were still working to save the other hours after the quake.

 

"God, let him come out alive!" said a woman watching as four cranes and a fleet of trucks removed what remained of the building's crumbled wing.

His blue uniform covered in dust, Vidal Vera, 29, was one of around 300 police officers digging through the rubble. He hadn't slept in more than 36 hours.

"I can't remember an earthquake this terrible," he told AFP.

"The whole city is a disaster zone right now. Lots of damage. Lots of deaths. I don't know how you can make sense of it. It's hard. My sister-in-law's husband died. His house fell on top of him."

- Record quake -

The governor said tens of thousands of ration packs, blankets and cleaning kits were arriving, along with 100 federal police reinforcements with rescue dogs to search for people in the wreckage.

"The priority in Juchitan is to restore water and food supplies and provide medical attention to those affected," Pena Nieto tweeted after visiting the devastated town.

He described the quake as "the largest registered in our country in at least the past 100 years" -- stronger even than a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico City.

 

In Tabasco, two children were among the dead. One was crushed by a collapsing wall. Another, an infant on a respirator, died after the quake triggered a power outage.

The epicenter of the quake, which hit late Thursday, was in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 kilometers off the town of Tonala in Chiapas.

Mexico's seismology service estimated it at 8.2 magnitude while the US Geological Survey put it at 8.1 -- the same as in 1985, the quake-prone country's most destructive ever.

In Tabasco, two children were among the dead. One was crushed by a collapsing wall. Another, an infant on a respirator, died after the quake triggered a power outage.

The epicenter of the quake, which hit late Thursday, was in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 kilometers off the town of Tonala in Chiapas.

 

Mexico's seismology service estimated it at 8.2 magnitude while the US Geological Survey put it at 8.1 -- the same as in 1985, the quake-prone country's most destructive ever.

- 'My house fell down' -

Meanwhile storm Katia made landfall in the neighboring state of Veracruz as a Category One hurricane.

Hours later it was downgraded to a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles (70 kilometers) per hour.

In Xalapa, the capital of the eastern state of Veracruz, "two people died in mudslides" triggered by the rainstorm, federal civil protection chief Luis Felipe Puente said on television.

The US National Hurricane Center said Katia was weakening, but heavy rain from the storm still posed a threat.

In Tecolutla, a coastal town of 8,000 residents, AFP journalists found felled trees and branches as families hunkered down to weather the storm.

Puente said rivers that flooded in Veracruz had damaged 235 homes and affected more than 900 people.

"My house fell down at about one o'clock in the morning. I was hiding in another house," Castellano Espinosa, a tour guide, 75, told AFP in Tecolutla.

"I got out in time with my important belongings and papers."

She was trying to sell some of her belongings to buy food.

Source: AFP