A Noise Like Thunder

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Some of the city's older hotels became casualties. The Regis, just off the Reforma, collapsed on itself; also hard hit were the Diplomatico, the De Carlo, the Versalles, the Montreal and the Principado. About six others reported less severe damage. At least ten major government buildings were affected, including the ministries of marine, labor and commerce, as well as the complex housing the state-owned Telefonos de Mexico. The destruction of government offices did not distress a cynical cabdriver, who commented, "Maybe there is a God."

Miraculously, only three Americans were reported to have been killed by week's end. More than 130,000 Americans are permanent residents of the capital; some 4,500 U.S. tourists were believed to have been in Mexico City at the time the quake struck. Many of the visitors tried to head home as quickly as possible. With communications and airline schedules disrupted, that was easier attempted than done.

For the rest of the world, aware of the quake but uncertain as to its impact, the disruption of communications caused in part by the collapse of Mexico City's main transmission tower prolonged the suspense. Only TV-13 provided information, and only to those who were fortunate enough to still have electricity; sections of the city were without power. A station in Bogota, Colombia, was able to monitor the Mexican channel's transmissions via satellite, and relayed the highlights to the outside world. International telephone and telex circuits were down and, as during the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983, the first on-the-spot accounts came from amateur radio operators. Using battery-powered equipment, a handful of Mexico City hams described the devastation to their counterparts in the U.S. The American operators, in turn, were able to help some of the thousands of U.S. citizens and residents with relatives in Mexico find out whether their kinfolk had survived. The U.S. State Department at first was able to communicate with its Mexico City embassy only by radio. Later, special telephone lines were established. The embassy, a massive modern building on the Reforma, was not damaged.

Runways at Mexico City's Benito Juarez airport were largely intact, but flights into the stricken capital were halted for a while as officials checked for damage. By nightfall, Mexican airlines and most U.S. carriers resumed service. Some of the initial eyewitness accounts of the tragedy came from travelers on the first flights out.

Clearly, the first priority in the capital was to find and rescue survivors. Some 10,000 troops were deployed in quake-scarred areas to keep spectators away, prevent looting and allow a quickly growing number of official and volunteer rescuers to go about their task. They did so in a spirit of solidarity, born of shared grief.

Hundreds of citizens flocked to medical clinics to donate blood, while others contributed food, clothing and blankets and offered shelter to the homeless. In the meantime the rescuers, some wearing bright orange vests and blue face masks, labored to trace cries for help amid twisted girders and broken blocks of concrete. When rescuers found survivors, they passed them in a human chain from the top of fallen buildings to the street and into waiting ambulances.