A volunteer and his dog help transport food to emergency personnel helping with the search for survivors in Mexico City, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico dealing a devastating amount of damage to buildings in Mexico City. (AP Photo/Anthony Vazquez)
The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Oscar Rangel doesn't own a shovel and typically he is sitting at a computer compiling databases at work. But when the magnitude 7.1 quake struck central Mexico this week, he was among the first to show up at a building that collapsed near his home, ready to dig for survivors.
In the two days since the devastating quake he and a brigade of other young Mexicans have searched through the rubble with newly acquired construction equipment at four destroyed buildings in or near Mexico City.
"More than anything, it's wanting to help, to do whatever we can, as Mexicans," said Rangel, 20.
They're not alone. Mexicans are looking to help in such numbers that some donation centers and shelters for victims are turning away volunteers. And more often than not, it is young people who are sorting through piles of food donations, donning construction hats, making sandwiches and playing music to rally the spirits of earthquake victims.
Most have no memory of the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands and remains a traumatic memory in the minds of older Mexicans, making Tuesday's quake a defining moment for a younger generation.
"There are many people helping, but as youth we are realizing that right now all our energy is needed," said Daniel Flores, 31, the director of a refuge center near a number of collapsed buildings.
A rescue worker raises his fist to ask for silence during rescue operations at the site of a building felled by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, in the Ciudad Jardin neighborhood of Mexico City, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017. Thousands of professionals and volunteers are working frantically at dozens of wrecked buildings across the capital and nearby states looking for survivors of the powerful quake that hit Tuesday. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
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A young couple, dust masks pulled down, holds hands as they walk down a street in the Condesa neighborhood in Mexico City, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. City residents are roaming the streets looking for ways to help in the earthquake rescue and recovery effort, and thousands have participated in removing debris, organizing donations, directing traffic, and distributing food and water. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
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Volunteer Edgar Alfaro, 23, hands out tamales to workers in the Ciudad Jardin neighborhood of Mexico City, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017. In the aftermath of a 7.1 magnitude, people have rallied to help their neighbors in a huge volunteer effort that includes people from all walks of life in Mexico City, where social classes seldom mix. Doctors, dentists and lawyers stood alongside construction workers and street sweepers, handing buckets of debris or chunks of concrete hand-to-hand down the line. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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Women dressed in costumes carry presents to give out to children near buildings that collapsed during a 7.1 earthquake in Mexico City, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017. Tuesday's magnitude 7.1 earthquake has stunned central Mexico, killing more than 200 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
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