Mexico’s quake as a wholesale natural disaster

CAIRO – 28 September 2017: Mexico has recently undergone one of the most devastating earthquakes in decades, resulting in massive destruction of buildings, many human losses, and severe blow to the Mexican infrastructure and economy.

The death toll from the earthquake reached 337 on Wednesday, with dozens more victims still believed to be beneath the rubble of one collapsed building in Mexico City, Reuters reported on September 27.

Mexico has been hit by two major earthquakes this month and the seismic activity continued on Tuesday with the Popocatepetl volcano to the south of Mexico City sending a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) plume of smoke and ash into sky, its third big exhalation in recent days, Reuters reported.

At least 44 buildings collapsed completely in Mexico City, according to official figures, with thousands more left damaged and unstable in the sprawling city, which is built on a drained lakebed, the Guardian reported on September 21.

At least 190,000 buildings have been seriously damaged by a series of earthquakes and storms in recent weeks, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Tuesday, with another senior official saying there was a collapse risk at 1,500 buildings in the capital, Reuters reported.

Rescuers and volunteers struggle searching survivors under ruins

Rescuers and volunteers frantically dug through the rubble of collapsed schools and homes long into the night, looking for survivors of Mexico's deadliest earthquake since 1985 as the number of fatalities climbed to 217 early on Wednesday, AFP reported.

However, rescuers are unlikely to find any more survivors of Mexico's earthquake still buried in the ruins, the emergency services chief said, with anger rising about a lack of information among relatives of an estimated 40 people still buried under rubble, Reuters reported on September 26.

A mix of neighborhood volunteers, police and firefighters used trained dogs and their bare hands to search through the school's rubble. Reports swept through the crowd of anxious parents outside the gates that relatives in two families had received Whatsapp messages from girls trapped inside, but that could not be confirmed, AFP reported.

The federal Education Department reported late Tuesday night that 25 bodies had been recovered from a primary and secondary school’s wreckage at a in southern Mexico City, all but four of them children. It was not clear whether the deaths were included in the overall death toll of 217 reported by the federal civil defense agency, AFP reported.

Schools close as Mexico quake gets worse

Most schools in Mexico City remained closed on Monday after last week's deadly earthquake, but children outside the capital were set to return to their classrooms even though aftershocks are still jolting the country, Reuters reported on September 25.

Search operations in Mexico City were narrowed to five buildings destroyed last Tuesday by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 320 people, Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera told local broadcaster Televisa on Monday, Reuters Reported.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.1 quake hit at 1:14 p.m. (2:15 p.m. EDT) and was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City, AFP reported.

Egypt expresses condolences over death of Mexico's earthquake

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, September 21 that Egypt supports Mexican people and government in this disaster and sympathizes with them, wishing the inured a speedy recovery.