Estado de Mexico landslides leave one dead and at least ten missing

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Boulders that plunged from a mountainside rests among homes in Tlalnepantla, on the outskirts of Mexico City, when a mountain gave way on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021. A section of mountain on the outskirts of Mexico City gave way Friday, plunging rocks the size of small homes onto a densely populated neighborhood and leaving at least one person dead and 10 others missing. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

TLALNEPANTLA, Estado de Mexico (September 10th, 2021) — Rescuers planned to resume the search Saturday for victims of a landslide that brought tons of massive boulders down on a steep hillside neighborhood outside Mexico City, killing at least one person and leaving 10 missing.

The operation is complicated by the sheer size of the rocks that cleaved from the peak known as Chiquihuite Friday afternoon, the narrow paths of the neighborhood largely inaccessible to heavy machinery and the worrisome instability of the exposed mountain face looming above.

The landslide in Tlalnepantla in Mexico state followed days of heavy rain in central Mexico and a 7.0-magnitude earthquake Tuesday in Acapulco that swayed buildings 200 miles away in the capital. Mexico state Gov. Alfredo del Mazo said Friday night that both factors likely contributed to the slide.

Neighborhood residents immediately started to dig for their neighbors Friday. They formed lines across the towering debris pile, passing 5-gallon buckets of debris and individual rocks down.

First responders conduct a rescue for survivors amid a three-story pile of rocks in Tlalnepantla, on the outskirts of Mexico City, when a mountain gave way on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021, plunging rocks the size of small homes onto a densely populated neighborhood. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Francisca Trejo, 57, rested near the pile wearing a pair of dirt-stained gardening gloves. “It sounded like when a truck dumps rocks, but for a long, long time,” she said.

Marcelo Israel Sánchez, 39, waited in his home for authorities to tell him what his wife and three children should do. He did not want to leave the house until the area was secure, but also feared the potential for additional slides. More than 80 surrounding homes were evacuated in case more of the mountain came down.

“The earthquake felt strong and probably because of that came the rock slide,” Sánchez said.

Source: El Universal

The Mexico City Post