Tales of earthquake in Mexico stream in from survivors with suburban ties
The 7.1 magnitude earthquake Tuesday was a harrowing experience not only for former suburban residents who live in central Mexico, but also for those who have family there.
More than 200 people died, and many are still missing. Dozens of buildings collapsed.
People in Mexico had just gone through earthquake drills that morning, as they do each year on the anniversary of the devastating 8.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the country on Sept. 19, 1985, said former Round Lake resident Kenia Peña.
Peña, now a government attorney for Mexico City, was working in her sixth-floor office when everything started shaking violently at 1:14 p.m. Tuesday. "I thought the building was going to fall," she said.
She and her colleagues lined up against the wall and, once the tremors ended, started making their way down the emergency stairs as they had just practiced, she said.
"There were pieces of concrete and glass all over, but fortunately everyone in the building made it out safely," she said. "Even if we had the drill, a lot of people panicked and were shouting."
Her office building was damaged and work is canceled for the rest of the week, Pena said. Her home is OK, and she is hosting a friend who needs a place to stay.
Many suburbanites began to call and text their loved ones as soon as they heard the shocking news of the earthquake, the second major quake this month to hit Mexico.
Streamwood resident Ana Maria Hinkhouse initially couldn't get in touch with her nephew, a student at the Monterrey Institute of Technology's Puebla campus, less than 40 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake.
"I couldn't reach him for a couple of hours. We were freaking out," said Hinkhouse, who works as a graphic designer for Paddock Publications, which owns the Daily Herald. "Finally after a couple of hours he responded and he said, 'I'm OK.'"
Hinkhouse's nephew, 19-year-old Nehemias Ortiz, said he was practicing outdoors with the football team when the ground started to shake. The football field is the designated "safe place" during earthquakes, so people began streaming out of buildings to gather there just as they had done two hours before, he said.
"I just stood there, stunned," Ortiz said. "Because we had just practiced, I stayed pretty calm. But I also wasn't inside a building."
When it was all over, the team - which has a big game Saturday - continued practicing until police told the players they should leave, he said.
Classes have been canceled this week, he said. A school building sustained a crack and there were lots of broken windows, but there was no major damage and, fortunately, no injuries, Ortiz said.