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p8 weekender october 5 1985 death agony tragedy and miracles in the wake of mexicos earthquake editors note lawrence elliott is a union ville resident and coowner of omniventure travel in the sherwood plaza in mar- kham he recently returned from mexico city and reports in this article on what it was like in the days following the devastating earthquake by lawrence elliott sitting in a departure salon at mexico city international airport waiting for mexicana 802 to chi cago the killer earthquake seemed like a million years be fore rather than just two weeks life seemed to go on for most as passengers came and went like in any other large airport except many were still arriving looking for loved ones they had not heard from as yet it was the very reason that brought me to mexico just a few days after the disaster when we first heard of the quake everyone was going through a typical day at omniventure travel where my wife rosenda was helping us out word had come from friends at mexicana airlines and the mex ican tourist council but no one was certain of the magnitude of the distruction at home that evening the panic began as rumors flew via tele phone within the mexican com munity in toronto what areas in mexico were affected and to what extent no one really knew for sure friday morning after a sleep less night we decided that my wife would be less distraught if she could go and find her family thank heavens for thomson vacation which arranged several tickets for mexicans working in travel and tourism in canada it was a worrisome and concerned adios as many including my wife bid goodbye to friends and family as they boarded a cp air charter to acapulco bad news all weekend the news from mexico seemed worse with no specific word from family only the pictures of the distruction emanating from ctv and the star by monday morning not know ing was unbearable so with the assistance and campassionate help of everyone at mexicana and united airlines i decided to join my wife in mexico i flew to ohare airport in chicago then boarded the 2 am nighthawk to mexico city in the dim light of 530 am ev erything in mexico city seemed so normal no building crumbled no ambulances screaming their way through the dawn at least not on the way from the airport y j hr aa mm hp 8 9 i t if w at 620 am i arrived at the home of my brotherinlaw andres to awake a startling fami ly including my wife no immedi ate family members had been hurt or killed however my youngest brother- inlaws girlfriend lost her aunt uncle and tiny baby boy they had been crushed to death in their apartment while at breakfast as their building crumbled around them they were found with the father on top of his wife and son in a futile attempt to protect his family after some sleep and breakfast we passed the day following the tv news and listening to stories of horror and hope estimates ranged upwards of 30000 people dead but official death tolls were much lower my brotherinlaw had been at a different disaster site each night trying to assist many homeless the first night after her arrival ray wife her brother and his wife maite had taken food and fruit juice in packages for 150 the goods had been donated by maites father to areas desig nated by the government as de sperately in heed thousands were sleeping in the streets afraid to back inside the buildings pro hibited from entering certain areas or left homeless at 1030 pm tuesday andres maite rosenda and i left with pablo a red cross volunteer for the worst hit area with an emergency flasher helmets wa ter fireextinguishers and bat tery powered lamps we passed through the mexican army checkpoint here there where hundreds of people just sitting around and waiting they were prohibited from entering the area but they remained awaiting word of their relatives perhaps still alive trap ped in the ruins of an apartment building destroyed in the tlatelol- co housing complex we were overwhelmed by the tragedy of the situation huge cranes were ready do the heavy work but seemed to spend so much time waiting for workers to hook on to large concrete slabs large enough to be lifted most of the crumbled reinforced concete was being dug away by the army of volunteers everyones mouth and nose was covered to avoid the stench the odor of rotting corpses below the rubble but still the closer we came to the crumpled mass of concrete the stronger the odor became 2600 buried lawrence elliott visited the disaster it was here at the apartment building named nuevo leon where people worked to exhaus tion with the fleeting hope of pull ing relatives out alive many had been rescued but as each hour passed the possibility of finding more buried alive grew slimmer estimates ranging as high as 2000 people still buried were ex pressed the huge and powerful lights set up for emergency lit up the night like daytime on an acapulco beach however the mood was considerably different red cross tents near the perimeter held doc tors and nurses innoculating everyone against tetanus and typhoid literally thousands stood to await their turn to relieve the army of volunteers on top of the rubble working in shifts those below awaited word that more rescue workers evacuate the injured in a damaged area of downtown mexico city following the recent earthquake in mexico city the quake which reg istered almost 8 on the richter scale left thousands dead and millions homeless canapress photo service hands were needed above there was little we could do so we left to find a disaster sight perhaps less spectacular but more in need of our help we had only to travel to rio lerma in the colonia juarez district to find the hotel romano a hotel well- known to canadian tour oper ators phone worked eerie scene 1 like all other areas affected by the quake the strangeness of the destruction was apparent across from what was formally the hotel romano a building considerably older than the hotel stood un scathed designated as danger ous no one was allowed in but at least the outward appearance seemed uneffected for two hours we helped to clear carpet pieces of furniture mattresses and concrete throw ing it down to the street below for an army caterpiller to load into a waiting truck this was driven only a block away or so and dumped in the street french doc tors stood and waited for injured people to be pulled from the build ing as four had been only nine hours before i spoke to a mexican obviously nearing exhaustion who had been digging since thursday tired and dirty his frustration was apparent as he told me of the poor organization volunteers usually relatives with all the best intentions scrambled up on the top of the rubble clawing away at concrete and bricks sending debris tumb ling down below covering up other openings into the center and tun nels into the hotel lobby after the destruction one man had used the phone miraculously still working to call outside the lobby and advise that amid the dead bodies of many less fortun ate he and five others were still alive they were later rescued the work continued as men attemped with acetylene torches to cut through the reinforcing rods of concrete this was a task that seemed to take forever before any progress could be made through the 1 am streets we travelled streets closed off to all but emergency vehicles police and army blocks and blocks where no one even lay sleeping in the buildings buildings still standing and apparently un touched but scaled off by the army for fear of their toppling the whole scene had the eerie appearance and feeling of a scene out of the old twilight zone televi sion series our final stop that night was one forced upon us by circumstances as we passed along avenida chil- pancingo a red cross worker flagged us down at the sight where my brotherinlaws girl friends relatives had died they were about to uncover more bodies and asked if we would take two in the back of the pickup to a local site set up for identification so they would not be carted off to mass graves the girls waited in the cab as pablo andres and i were given gloves to climb up on top and pull bodies out and carry them back to the truck no question existed that we would find cadavres and not live people as we were now five days after the quake the odor was absolutely overpowering even though we wore masks with scarves tied over them the sick ening stench almost gagged us as we climbed up to where a jack hammer drowned out everything else the diesel fumes from the crane were a welcome breath of fresh air however the workmen had underestimated the time it would take to reach the bodies for three hours we waited as the sledge hammers and pick axes battered away finally a hole big enough for a worker with a lamp to peer into the cavity below the half- buried form of a corpse confirmed what everyone already knew crushed cars odor overpowering as we stopped we saw two cas kets on the street brought by rela tives to take away their loved ones exhausted from the long night we were finally sent away as more volunteers arrived as i stumbled down from the top of what must have been the eighth floor i reached down and picked up a small blue toy truck not un like one my own son safe at home in bed would play with i leaped down on what i soon realized was a mangled volkswagen rabbit many other cars lay twisted beyond recognition nearby the force of what had happened was just incomprehensible later that day we heard more see infants p10