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Following a series of deadly earthquakes Israel received a request for assistance from Mexico. The series included the most damaging earthquake since the disaster in 1985. It struck 140 kilometres southeast of Mexico City and caused substantial damage in a number of villages and towns as well as in the capital.
Amongst others, the Israel Defense Forces, IsraAID, ZAKA International Rescue Unit and iAID sent emergency response teams to Mexico and provided support. Israel was the fourth foreign team to reach Mexico after the first major earthquake struck, preceded only by volunteers from the much closer Central American states of Honduras, El Salvador and Panama.
With major damage in Mexico City aid poured into the capital. Out in the equally hard-hit villages around the city, residents were partly left to cope alone in the first days after the disaster. “IsraAID was the first group to offer help to our village,” said a resident of Hueyapan in the Mexican state of Morelos, one of the areas most affected by the recent earthquakes. “We were very grateful because we hadn’t received any help yet, and we felt very forgotten.”
Three Israeli Spanish-speaking experts – two of them from Mexico — were providing psychosocial first aid and resilience training to children and adults in coordination with IsraAID’s medical officer. Many villagers suffered stress-related physical complaints such as headache and insomnia. “One thing they hear often in their sessions is that people were home alone or at school or work when the earthquake happened and they were very distressed not to know where their family members were. They have large families here,” says Naama Gorodischer, IsraAID senior director of programme.
Tech from Israel was also used in the aftermath of the earthquakes. Radio-wave technology developed by Israeli firm Camero-Tech was helping rescue workers in Mexico search for buried victims, according to Amir Beeri, the CEO of the firm. The “sense-through-the-wall” imaging technology is able to detect in real time if there is movement or breathing within the destruction, indicating if there is someone alive that needs to be rescued. The system also allows users to pinpoint the location of the people trapped within the building, even if they are unconscious.
Over the past months, Israel also sent emergency response teams to assist people affected by hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida.
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