The residents of the mountain town of Guatemala were shaken on November 8, 2012, after a powerful earthquake struck late on Wednesday, near Guatemala’s border with Mexico. The quake claimed the lives of at least 48 people and left dozens missing. Many people came out onto the streets wrapped in blankets early in the morning.
Rescue workers worked throughout the night in San Marcos, while they searched in the rubble for survivors.
Fire fighters in San Cristobal Cochu were trying to dig out a collapsed house in order to unearth ten members of a family, including a 4 year old child. Boxes of medical supplies started arriving on Wednesday, assembled by volunteers in western Guatemala.
A 26-year-old law student, along with a group of his classmates were already collecting medical supplies as part of a school drive to provide aid for the only hospital in San Marcos, which is a poor and indigenous mountain area, consisting of subsistence farms. When the quake hit, the group decided to bring in all they had collected. The earthquake spread panic in a wide area, with damage reported in all but one of the 22 states of Guatemala.