Passengers Arrive At MIA From Mexico City With Tales Of Destruction
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - People traveling to Mexico City after it was rocked by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake were grateful to hear that nearly all early morning flights in and out of the capital city at Miami International were scheduled on time.
More than 40 buildings collapsed in the capital city and at least 225 people are confirmed dead in Tuesday's quake.
Marissa Delacruz was at airport to send her mother off after her flight was cancelled the day before. She said her mother is very emotional and not prepared for what she'll see.
"Honestly she just wants to see that my family is safe over there," she said.
Some passengers who arrived Wednesday morning said the destruction in Mexico City was beyond belief.
Francisco Arguedas flew into the capital city for business just hours before the quake. He ended up abandoning his office building and caught the soonest flight home.
"It was really scary, it was a really scary moment, it's devastating, the whole people is working to recover, all the buildings went down, I mean not all the buildings but 30 or 40 collapsed, there are people trapped in those buildings, it is chaos," said Arguedas.
One of the most desperate rescue efforts was at a primary and secondary school in southern Mexico City, where a wing of the three-story building collapsed.
President Enrique Pena Nieto visited the school late Tuesday and said 22 bodies had been recovered there, two of them adults. By early Wednesday morning, Mexican officials had confirmed that 25 people were killed in the school. Rescuers were continuing their search and pausing to listen for voices from the rubble.