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Abstract
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After successive earthquakes hit Mexico, volunteers organise to provide help and support. Barbara Fraser and Fabián Carvallo-Vargas report from Mexico City.
As rescue workers burrowed through the twisted remains of Mexico City's Enrique Rébsamen School, Rodrigo López, a general practitioner, stood ready to tend to victims. 11 students were rescued, but hope faded as more bodies were pulled from the rubble where more than 20 students and seven adults died.
In the hours after a strong earth-quake—the second one in 2 weeks— jolted Mexico, volunteer rescue brigades and health teams sprang up almost spontaneously at the school and other collapsed buildings around Mexico City.
But while civic efforts were a crucial part of the early response, the lack of coordinated information made it difficult for skilled workers to know where they were most needed. And in the wake of the quakes, which left more than 400 people dead, experts warn that the hard work of reconstruction is still to come...
Language: en |