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Digging and hoping: Neighbors search for earthquake victims

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January 15, 2001 

SANTA TECLA-- (AP) - Trapped in a bathroom, her legs pinned under concrete blocks, a young servant named Maria Antonia cried out for her brother and for the child she used to care for.

Above the tons of dirt covering her, firefighters worked furiously to free her, hammering away concrete to create a narrow hole and feeding an IV tube through in a desperate rescue effort following the earthquake in El Salvador.

"She's calm, but she said she can't feel her legs," said Jhonny Ramos, a rescue worker who descended into the pit to comfort her. The woman, whose first name only was known, said she was touching the leg of another servant - who was lying near her, dead.

Maria Antonia was one of only three survivors found by Sunday morning among the hundreds of homes buried by the quake-triggered landslide in the Las Colinas neighborhood of Santa Tecla, about six miles (10 kilometers) west of the Salvadoran capital.

The child she asked about - like hundreds more people reported missing - may be buried somewhere beneath.

Digging through the rubble to reach her took five hours. Amid the massive destruction, it was a tiny victory: nearby, corpses, some horribly mangled, were laid out in a yard.

Authorities said at least 120 people had been confirmed dead nationwide and another two in Guatemala. As many as 1,200 people have been reported missing in Las Colinas.

Elsewhere in the middle-class neighborhood, Arturo Magana shoveled continuously - even though he wasn't sure exactly where his crushed home was located.

"I can't leave. I can't stop. My brother is down there," he said.

Authorities brought in soldiers and bulldozers - but afraid the equipment would crush survivors, some residents preferred to keep working by hand.

The neighborhood was flattened and buried by the Cordillera de Balsamo, the ridge that looms over Las Colinas.

For years, residents had carved into the hillsides and cut into forests to clear building lots. The quake, centered off the country's coast, finally tumbled the loosened soil onto the neighborhood below.

Reynaldo Maradiaga, 35, described how he started to run when the earthquake began rocking his home.

"I heard a big roar, and I saw the mountain come tumbling down over the houses," said Maradiaga. The wave of earth stopped three feet (a meter) from his doorway.

Some rescuers, like volunteer David Lara, said it would be difficult to find more survivors. "I don't think we're going to get anyone out alive," Lara said.

Others vowed to keep trying.

"I'm not losing hope," said Maria Hernandez, 26, whose aunt and 3-year-old nephew were missing. "Only God knows why this happened. But I'm not giving up. I'm going to get them out of here."