Juan Manuel Torres sscc and Marco García sscc, brothers of the sscc community of San Pedro Coayuca de Andrade, Puebla, Mexico, tell us about the situation in the parish after the earthquake of September 19.
On September 19, a 7.2 earthquake shook the southern region of the state of Puebla with an epicenter in Axochiapan, Morelos, about 50 km from our community, San Pedro, Coayuca.
Since then and until now no communications or electricity have been restored. The reports that we have of the situation of the town is that all the houses there have been impacted, the oldest constructions, those of adobe, being most damaged. No death has been reported, only a few accidents due to falling fences or roofing materials.
We are well. The damage has been material. The house and church have very serious damages. With the passage of time are we getting to know better the extent of the damage. The house is uninhabitable; with any movement, there is the risk of collapse. The church is structurally damaged, also at the risk of collapsing. For this reason we have closed off access to all. We took out the art work and the parish staff took them home. We have only the image of St. Peter, the patron of our parish.
This morning (September 20) we celebrated the Eucharist with people who are visibly moved by the damage suffered by the house of the Lord and shook up by what we have been through. We have thanked our good God that we are alive. We ask God to accompany us and all close to us. We still do not know how they are. We have surrendered our lives to the Lord and slowly we hope to get back to normal and begin the reconstruction work of our parent church.
So far this morning the civil authorities had not shown up, nor was the municipal present during the day, yesterday. Today the state government came to cordon off the perimeter of the front of the church. The state police did come and decried the absence of the municipal authorities.
Thank you for your prayer and for your love.
Juan Manuel, ss.cc. and Marco, ss.cc.
The previous earthquake, of September 7, did not affect this area of Puebla. That one was 7.2 degrees on the Richter scale, which has already left about 250 people dead and an untold number missing. However in this one, the church, dating from the sixteenth century, suffered serious damage, especially the church tower. The temple was in a process of restoration that contemplated four stages. Only few days ago, the first part ?of waterproofing the foundations? had been completed.
Both brothers had to sleep in the open because of the possibility of aftershocks. So did much of the city, very close to the epicenter of this new earthquake.
The remainder of the SSCC brothers and sisters are ok, both in Mexico DF (Federal District) and in Guadalajara, and the community of the Sisters of Atotonilco de Tula.
We feel close to them all, along with all the Mexican people who have suffered this new earthquake.
09/21/2017