Last Known Body Rescued From Rubble After Mexico Earthquake

By Jorge Valencia
October 05, 2017
Jorge Valencia
The last body known to be trapped in rubble two weeks after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake killed at least 369 people in Mexico was recovered from a collapsed office building on Wednesday.

Rescue teams in Mexico City have recovered the last body known to be caught under rubble from buildings flattened by the Sept. 19 earthquake that rattled the central part of the country. At least 369 died as a result of the earthquake, almost two thirds of them in the capital.

Laura Moody, a Phoenix native who moved to Mexico City in 2005, was one of hundreds of volunteers outside the former office building where the last body was recovered. She helped manage the entry and exit of people and supplies for rescue efforts on Alvaro Obregon Avenue in a central section of the city.

Family members of people who had been in the building but hadn't been rescued had been staying in tents and keeping vigil over the two weeks since the earthquake, Moody said.

“What they wanted was to have their family members with them,” Moody said.

Moody said she hopes rescue teams and volunteers who helped them can use lessons they learned to prepare for the event of another earthquake. Central Mexico was struck by an earthquake in 1985 that killed thousands of people.

“I hope we can take what we’ve done here and apply it,” Moody said.

President Enrique Peña Nieto said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon that teams will continue to slowly remove debris and begin reconstruction efforts.