Feature: One month on from quake, Mexicans seek to overcome their pain

Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-20 07:12:48|Editor: Mengjie
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by Luis Rojas

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- One month on from the devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake, which shook five Mexican states, mainly Mexico City, the survivors are trying to overcome the trauma it left behind.

"I lost the calm, peace and harmony that used to be in my house," says Fannie Emergy, 42 and mother of two.

After the quake, Emery moved from an apartment building to a house in the southern neighborhood of Coyoacan in search of a more peaceful place to live but she cannot stop thinking of when the disaster struck her second-floor flat.

"It was a terrifying experience to see all the objects, the frames, the decorations fall and cracks appear along the walls," she told Xinhua.

Thankfully, Emery lost no member of her family that day. Nationwide, the earthquake killed 369 people, 228 in Mexico City, 74 in Morelos, 45 in Puebla, 15 in the State of Mexico, 6 in Guerrero and 1 in Oaxaca.

However, Emery still suffers from anguish and insomnia, as she lies awake thinking what could happen to her children, aged three and four, if another quake should strike.

For the Diego family, the situation is even more complicated. They lived on the fourth-floor of a building in the southern neighborhood of Portales. The apartment block, built in 1981, partially collapsed and is set to be demolished.

The collapse of the first two floors killed one person and left the family without their belongings. They have not been able to return home to try and find some items, as authorities have not granted their permission.

"I need to get back to my life as fast as possible," explained Leonardo Diego, a 47-year-old civil servant. "I want to get back to a normal life as I lost clothes, I lost documents, I lost my computer, I lost everything."

The Diego family had to move in a hurry to a few hundred meters from the building and were able to start a new home thanks to donations of clothing and other articles through an aid program organized on social media.

For Rodrigo Diego, a geography student, the experience of the earthquake left him deeply traumatized.

"It is horrible to know that you are left without a hope, without anything. The fact that we are well helps me to remember the important things in life. Material things can be recovered, life cannot," he says.

The quake struck just 12 days after a 8.2 magnitude tremor, which killed 98 people in the center and south of the country.

The Mexican government has calculated the damage from both disasters stood at 48 billion pesos (around 2.5 billion U.S. dollars) and had affected over 12 million people.

Mexico City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said on Thursday that the damage to the capital from the second earthquake were due to its proximity, with the epicenter just 120 km away.

"Everyone in Mexico City were affected, there is not one person who was not affected," he explained.

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