After quake, US - Mexico border:
Life calms down on both sides
Tony Perry, Tracy Wilkinson and Ching-Ching Ni
Life began returning to a jittery sort of normal Monday on both sides
of the US-Mexican border, one day after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake
rumbled through the area around Mexicali, Mexico. Assessment teams
inspected buildings and cleanup crews swept up broken glass in Mexicali
and its smaller California neighbour, Calexico, both of which sustained
modest damage. The death toll rose to two, and more than 230 people were
injured. The quake, centered about 30 miles south of the border, caused
45 buildings in Baja California to collapse or partly collapse,
authorities said. "Little by little, things are coming back to normal,"
said Alejandro Contreras, a spokesman for the state of Baja California
in Mexicali, a sprawling municipality of almost 1 million about 125
miles east of San Diego. "People are nervous, of course, but we are
calling for calm and working to restore services."
Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited a hard-hit village near the
epicenter late Monday afternoon, touching down in a helicopter to hand
out the first bags of food and listen to residents' complaints.
"Do not be scared," he told the crowd in Colonia de la Puerta. "We
will do everything we can for you."
As he spoke, convoys of Californians drove past in sport utility
vehicles and trucks, heading home from vacation.
On the US side of the border, a 12-square-block historic section of
Calexico was closed for inspection and several buildings were red-tagged
as unsafe, City Manager Victor M. Carrillo said. Calexico also lost the
use of its main water tank, prompting city officials to call for strict
conservation.
Carrillo said that damage totaled "millions of dollars" but that it
was too early for more precise estimates.
Casualities
Two people were injured in surrounding Imperial County, one
critically, according to Maria Peinado, a spokeswoman for the county
Office of Emergency Services. It wasn't clear how or where they were
hurt.
Considering the magnitude of the quake, it was roughly equivalent to
the one that devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January, causing more
than 200,000 deaths, the region seemed to have emerged surprisingly
intact.
At a news conference in Pasadena, Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton
said the population near the epicenter was not nearly as dense as in
Haiti, partly explaining why there were fewer casualties. She also noted
that Haiti had substandard structures and no building code enforcement.
Hutton said the earthquake in Mexico, which struck at 3:40 pm Sunday,
probably occurred between five and 10 miles below the surface. It was
followed by hundreds of smaller aftershocks, she said. Over the next
week, she added, there might be as many as 22 aftershocks of magnitude 4
and perhaps two of magnitude 5. "People who live near (the epicenter)
are getting no sleep," she said.
That was certainly the case in Mexicali, where thousands slept
outside Sunday night. Authorities were setting up temporary shelters,
especially in rural areas where the quake ruptured irrigation canals,
leading to extensive flooding.
Mexicali is a major farming center, and irrigation is essential to
the industry.
Bit of psychosis
"There is a bit of a psychosis. People are scared, especially with
all the aftershocks," Contreras said. "We're urging everyone not to
panic, to know that help is being provided."
Authorities in Mexico stressed that reservoirs were safe and there
was no danger that Mexicali or Tijuana would run out of water. Officials
said electrical power had been restored to most customers in Mexicali.
Farmers in villages close to the epicenter discovered widespread
damage to their homes, schools and churches Monday. The temblor ripped
jagged fissures throughout the rural area, about 25 miles southeast of
Mexicali. Walls and roofs of many homes and other structures were badly
cracked. Water, sewage and power services were not working, and the
two-lane road connecting the area to Mexicali was impassable at several
places where the earthquake had torn the pavement apart.
The quake also pushed up water from below the earth's surface,
leaving the area a flooded, muddy mess. Many homes and schools were
rendered bogs, while the landscape took on the look of a checkerboard
with huge pools of water separated by dry patches.
Jorge Alcaraz, 54, lives in Moreno Valley but was visiting family in
Nayarit, the village of his childhood. Surveying his brother's home,
which was all but destroyed, Alcaraz shook his head as he compared the
quake with others the area has experienced. "This is different," he
said. "This is very, very different."
One man died in the collapse of a house, authorities said, and
another man, 94, was killed by falling debris.
Among the buildings severely damaged in Mexicali was the general
hospital. Baja California Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan said patients
were being treated in tents while inspectors moved through the city to
survey damage.
"Little by little the calm is returning," Osuna said.
Hundreds of people lined up Monday as the Baja Government set up a
relief center to distribute blankets, food and water.
Maria del Carmen, 21, arrived at the center with her family after
walking seven miles from their home.
"We have nothing," she said. "We have no water for our family. We
need help."
Evelyn Evangelista, 43, said her family's tortilla factory was
heavily damaged. The roof collapsed and there was no electricity or
water.
"This shop was our whole life," she said. "But at least our family
survived." Los Angeles Times
A New York story could have ended in
tragedy, but came out differently because of paternal instincts, quick
thinking and heroic action, not to mention the courageous assistance of
a complete stranger.
It was a sun-drenched New York weekend, and
late Saturday afternoon, lower Manhattan was packed with visitors.
“I had just bought a new camera and I
figured why not head down to South Street Seaport, it’s a gorgeous day
out,” said a man who captured the scene on video.
But then, a splash and a scream. Someone had
fallen from the gangway of the square rigger Peking into the 48 degree
East River, and suddenly that dilemma memorialized in Woody Allen’s film
Manhattan was really happening.
If a person was drowning, would we have the
nerve, would one of us have the nerve to dive into the icy water and
save them? It’s a key question. Only it was a 2-year-old named Bridgett
who’d fallen in. And first her father David Anderson and then a second
man didn’t hesitate to plunge in. “By the time he had jumped in, I was
just jumping over the railing and heard another splash, some mysterious
Frenchman, as everyone’s been labeling him, jumped in like a hero,” said
the cameraman.
And it was heroic. Boatmen know the
so-called rule of 50, that the average adult has a 50-50 chance of
surviving a 50 yard swim or 50 minutes in 50 degree water. And the east
river was colder than that. Little Bridgette needed more help from other
strangers to get the last few feet to safety. “One guy got as close as
he could to the water while another man was holding his arm and the
father pushed the daughter up and as he pushed her up someone reached
down and grabbed her sweater,” said the cameraman.
And Bridgette was fine, stabilized at the
scene and later released from the hospital in good health. So while
Woody Allen’s character might have given himself a pass about a decision
to jump to the rescue or not, a little girl is alive today because of
what two men did, David Anderson, and a mystery Frenchman who simply
left in a cab without waiting around for credit or thanks. 11Alive.com
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