For two and a half days, a saga of hope, grief and frustration at a toppled school in Mexico City
For more than two days, people throughout Mexico and the world waited for news from the southern part of Mexico City, where an elementary school had collapsed during this week’s devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
In an instant, concrete walls and ceilings in parts of the elementary school crashed down, crushing students as young as first-graders. Over the next 50 or so hours, hopes would rise and fall as rescue efforts unfolded at the school. In the end, the search for a single survivor took a turn no one could have expected.
Tuesday, Sept. 19, 1:14 p.m.
People rush in to help
Not long after the quake strikes about 100 miles south of Mexico City, neighbors, relatives of the children and even a passing taxi driver rush toward the giant plume of dust rising from the ruined school.
Videos shared on social media show children inside the campus running around, screaming as teachers try to lead them off campus. Some men try to move concrete slabs to pull children to safety, while others try to help the injured and calm survivors.
Some turn to Twitter to call for more help. Eventually, police, firefighters and military officers respond and cordon off the campus.
Tuesday night
Possible survivors
Hundreds of rescuers, including soldiers and firefighters, work all night long, determined to find survivors.
As workers pull back debris using shovels, buckets and at times a backhoe, they pause when they hear what appears to be survivors. But it’s unclear whether they are detecting cries for help or sounds of the rubble settling.
President Enrique Peña Nieto visits the school and shares the grim news with the country’s citizens.
“There are 22 bodies here — two are adults. Thirty children are missing and eight other adults missing. And workers are continuing rescue efforts.”
Boy and girl pulled from wreckage
Rescuers hear what they are sure is a child. According to Mexico’s Foro TV, rescuers shout to the girl to move her hand if she can hear them. She does.
A search dog enters the wreckage and confirms the child is alive.
Rescuers pull the girl free. Not long after, a boy is saved.
Each time a rescue is made, a large crowd gathers around the group, erupting in cheers. Strangers embrace one another.
Frida Sofia
Mexican-state TV reported that one of the rescuers had managed to talk to a girl inside the rubble, who said her name was “Frida Sofia.” By Tuesday evening, the name had gone viral on social media. The story of the missing girl captivated the nation.
Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017
25 confirmed dead
Rescuers remove at least 25 bodies from what had been a three-story building. Twenty-one of the dead were students — children with names like Daniela, Diana and Oscar. They were believed to be 7- to 8-year-olds and were wearing their black-and-white school uniforms.
Parents wait in a special area for word about their children. Mexicans take to social media to share photos of the lost in an attempt to reunite them with relatives.
Wednesday night
Rescuers suffer a setback
Rescuers reportedly think they are about to reach the Frida Sofia but then decide she is on a different floor.
“Sadly the girl Frida Sofía is not on the third floor, as rescuers believed; she’s on the second floor. There are two beams above her,” tweeted Televisa newscaster Joaquin López-Dóriga:
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017
Hope rises and falls
The story of the missing girl inspires the hashtag #FridaSofia, which trends on Twitter. Mexicans captivated by the story share it as a beacon of optimism and hope across social media.
But by the afternoon, the Mexican navy reports that there are no signs that a child is still alive.
“All of the children are, unfortunately, dead or safe at home,” says Angel Enrique Sarmiento, the undersecretary of the navy.
Then he drops a bombshell. In fact, he says, government authorities were never aware of the existence of any child named Frida Sofia.
News that there apparently was no living girl under the rubble prompted a new social media eruption, this one of outrage.
“Fake news,” many people tweeted.
“State-run media failed hoax,” says one Twitter user. “Distracted [international] community for at least 72 hours.”
Still, some keep hope for any survivor.
Abne Mendez, a Twitter user, wrote: “Maybe her name isn’t #FridaSofia, maybe she’s not a girl, but as long as there’s a possibility that someone is alive, it’s worth the effort.”
Thursday night
More confusion over Frida Sofia
The confusing Frida Sofia saga takes another strange turn Thursday night, when a grim-faced Sarmiento goes on live television to explain earlier statements by the navy about the girl. He ends up confusing matters further.
Earlier Thursday, Sarmiento had insisted that the navy never had any knowledge of a girl who supposedly was trapped in the rubble.
In his evening news conference, however, Sarmiento contradicts the earlier statement, conceding that the navy had distributed reports of a girl surviving inside the school “based on technical reports and the testimony of civilian rescue workers and of this institution.” He offers no explanation for the conflicting accounts but apologizes.
Then Sarmiento surprises listeners by saying that it’s still possible a victim is trapped in the rubble — perhaps an adult school staffer, perhaps even a child. By now, about 50 hours after the quake struck Tuesday afternoon, confusion continues and Mexicans and others following the matter are left perplexed.
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