国际英语新闻:Feature: "I thought it was the end," Mexican quake survivors recall

JUCHITAN, Mexico, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- "I thought it was the end of the world," says Ivan Santiago, a resident of Juchitan, the small town in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca that bore the brunt of Thursday night's powerful 8.2-magnitude earthquake.

Home to approximately 70,000 inhabitants, Juchitan saw 36 people killed, nearly half the national total of 65, as well as 300 injured and more than 2,000 homes severely damaged.

"It was scary. The sky was rumbling and at the same time there were flashes of green, pink and orange lights," Santiago, a vendor whose home was partially damaged, told Xinhua.

Many of his neighbors were unable to run out of their homes when the quake struck a few minutes before midnight, due to old age or illness, he said.

"It was a moment of helplessness that paralyzed me," he added.

His friend Antonio had a similar recollection.

"It was shocking ... in those seconds that feel like an eternity, you could hear from nearby and afar the desperate screams of people from falling trees, a transformer, several roofs and entire houses," said Antonio.

Having survived the quake, he now worried about his inability to get insulin to treat his diabetes, as many pharmacies were destroyed.

The strongest quake to hit Mexico in nearly a century struck at 11:49 p.m., sending seismic waves through south and central Mexico, where it was felt by some 50 million people across 12 states.

In Mexico City, more than 400 km away from the epicenter off Mexico's south coast, residents ran into the streets and remained there for the duration of the 135-second long earthquake.

Another 15 people were killed in neighboring Chiapas state and four others in Tabasco, Luis Felipe Puente, head of Civil Protection, said on Saturday.

The recovery effort will be considerable, Juchitan's Mayor Gloria Sanchez told Xinhua.

"Juchitan is in total disaster," said Sanchez.

Hundreds of residents are spending the night outside their damaged homes, afraid of being trapped or killed by falling debris in one of the many aftershocks.

The quake also knocked down power lines and disrupted the water supply system.

"The situation is critical because on top of it all there is no medication and there are no specialists. We are undergoing a very difficult situation," said Sanchez.

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto visited Juchitan on Friday, with members of his cabinet, and said an emergency fund had been activated to help this town and others in Oaxaca and Chiapas that were hard hit.

Medicine, doctors, food supplies, potable water and sleeping mats were also on the way, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said.

Alfredo Sanchez, a resident and medical student, told Xinhua, "what we need now is first for them to help us with some important things, like supplying us with enough water, bandages for wounds and medication, basically."

Sanchez is currently camping outdoors with his parents, uncles, cousins, grandmother and a dog.

"It's safer, in case of an aftershock, we won't be exposed to risks such as (falling) fences or electric cables," he said.

The quake has brought relatives and neighbors closer together, he said, but more importantly, it has led him reflect on the "value of what you have ... not material things, which in the end you can recover. I mean values and family."

His family is going to continue camping out until they feel the danger has subsided, said Sanchez, adding that a neighbor who lived across the street from them was killed when her house was toppled by the quake.

"That left me shocked. Her house, where she had a pharmacy, collapsed. I didn't know how to react," said Sanchez.