Irish mum was separated from her young boys when Mexico quake hit

By: Louise Walsh

A panicked Co. Meath mother was on the underground metro - separated from her two young sons, when the devastating earthquake hit Mexico city last Tuesday.

Paula Browne also had the agonising wait of over six hours for further news of her husband who was working in a University badly hit by the 7.1 magnitude tremors.

The English teacher who is originally from Navan, had left her 10 year old son Liam at home and was on her way to collect her other son Fionn (8) from school when the quake hit at 1.14pm local time.

She was travelling underground and initially unable to contact either of her young sons or her husband because of poor phone coverage.

Safe: The Browne family

"I was on the metro on my way to collect my son Fionn when it happened.  I was underground and when I got off the metro and onto the platform, I just felt a swaying sensation but thought I might have been dizzy because of the heat.

"As we went upstairs, I could see signs swinging and staff turning off the escalators urged us to hurry above ground.

"I was separated from both my sons and my husband.  None of my family were together and I was terrified. It was very scary

"The obvious fear is for the safety of your family and my husband Francisco was working at a university in the south of the city when news filtered through that it had been badly hit."

She kept trying to ring her family when she safely collected her son Fionn from school and eventually heard her loved ones were safe.

"Liam persisted on the house phone and eventually managed to get through to me to tell me that both he and his child-minder were ok," she said.

"I live on the sixth floor of a 13-storey building and Liam was at home sick.  He said the building swayed and groaned for what seemed to be forever.

"We do a lot of drills for earthquakes so Liam knew to go to a safe space in the apartment and creep down.  He said parts of the walls started to crack and lumps of plaster fell from the walls.

"He told me they were safe but they were evacuating the building."

Paula Browne: "It was chaos everywhere

"It was chaos everywhere.  Fionn and I got a bus to get home but ended up walking because all the traffic lights were out and everyone was just trying to get to places to find their own families.

"There were sirens and helicopters everywhere.  The fear and panic was palpable."

Paula, who is living in Mexico for the last 15 years, says she then spent the next six hours waiting on word on her husband.

"My husband managed to send me a message straight after the earthquake, saying that the university was badly hit but that he was ok.  However I didn't hear from him again for another six hours.

This is where Paula Browne worked

"Everyone was out on the streets trying to get through to their loved ones.  Most buildings were evacuated while they inspected for safety.

"A cafe nearby brought us all in for shelter until our building was declared safe later that night.

"The damage to my apartment doesn't seem to be structural but a lot of cracks and holes appeared in it.  My sitting room looks like some nut got a sledgehammer to our home

"In all my time here, I've never experienced an earthquake as bad and my husband who lived through the last devastating earthquake in 1985 said this was as, if not more scary."

Paula's mum Kathleen and family were on tenterhooks in Claremount in Navan as they waited for news of Paula, Francisco and their boys.

"My family were up all night worrying.  Thankfully we are ok but I've friends who have lost their homes.  There are buildings all around me that have fallen - even yesterday (Thursday), more have fallen.

"We all did an earthquake drill that morning and then two hours later it really happened.  In a way, I hope that helped more people get to safety in an orderly fashion.

"The response here has been phenomenal.  Everyone wants to help in any way they can.  Hopefully more survivors will be found in what are walls of rubble all around us."

Paula, a speech and language therapist first visited Mexico after meeting her now husband Francisco when he worked in Dublin.  She now teaches English in schools.
The death toll from the 7.1 magnitude quake currently stands at 237 and is expected to rise even further as rescue workers comb through tonnes of rubble.

At least 44 buildings collapsed completely - some schools -  with thousands more left damaged and unstable. 

The quake occurred on the 32nd anniversary of the country's most lethal earthquake ever and is still reeling from last week's powerful 8.4 earthquake in the south of the country that killed almost 100 people.