Experts from the German aid organisation I.S.A.R. Germany have also been involved in the rescue work following the severe earthquake in Mexico since Thursday. A four-strong advance team arrived early in the morning (local time) and explored the other key areas of operation in the damaged area. Six other specialists, who departed from Frankfurt in the afternoon, also carried a state-of-the-art bioradar device.
After Tuesday's earthquake, which has already claimed several hundred lives, there was still hope of finding and rescuing buried victims two days later. The local authorities are therefore also relying on the support of foreign experts who can assess the condition of the collapsed buildings and advise the rescue teams on how to proceed. The rescue team sent by the NGO International Search and Rescue (I.S.A.R.) Germany in cooperation with the BRH Bundesverband Rettungshunde e.V. and an expert from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) therefore primarily includes civil engineers and technicians.
The second I.S.A.R. team, which was expected to arrive in Mexico City on Thursday evening (local time), is also carrying a motion tracker that can detect survivors under rubble within a range of up to 25 metres. "The reflections of the waves emitted by this state-of-the-art bioradar are measured so finely that breathing or even heart rates can be visualised on the control computer," explained I.S.A.R. Managing Director Michael Lesmeister. It is very likely that no equivalent device is currently in use in Mexico, he added.
The experts deployed are highly experienced. For example, they were able to contribute their civil engineering advice and expertise for rescue and medical first aid after the severe earthquake in Nepal in 2014, the severe hurricane in the Philippines in 2013 and the severe earthquake in Haiti in 2010. The Mexican government wrote to I.S.A.R Germany on Thursday that it was delighted with the arrival of its first civil engineers and looked forward to the imminent arrival of the second team.
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The advance team visited the disaster-stricken country to get an idea of the situation.
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The ISAR experts found great destruction in Mexico.
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ISAR members on their way to the scene of the accident in Mexico.
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An ISAR team consisting of Dominik Behet, Michael Lesmeister, Marcus Manfred Zinser, Gerd Habel, Bastian Herbst and Benno Riehl is on its way from Frankfurt Airport to the earthquake region in Mexico. They will provide support with their knowledge of the building structure.
