I was teaching in the famous Zona Rosa. We were in the middle of final  exams.The violent shaking started and the students and I were unable to  stand up and leave the room. We continued the exam once the shaking  subsided. However nobody showed up to take the next exam. I decided to  walk to my apartment about 10 blocks away....realizing then the  destruction that was all around me. I found my 4 story apartment  building crushed by an 11 story hotel. Hundreds of people died in the  hotel along with all of my apartment building neighbors.

In the following days, a friend who was working for the national oil  company comandeered a huge crane to where my apartment once stood and  rescued my piano from atop the ruins... gently guiding the piano, now  all tied up with hoses from the fire department, to an unlittered spot  in the street. When the piano was placed on the street the hoses broke  but hundreds of people who were witnessing the rescue of the piano broke  into applause.

1: The next door hotel fell like a deck of cards onto my apartment  building

2: The building across the street using the same crane to remove  concrete blocks

3: We got close to the ruins  and did find pictures and  broken art works

4: The view  of my apartment with the hotel on top from  an adjacent  undamaged building

5: The piano had already been removed from  atop the rubble! You can still see the art work on the walls of the  apartment

6: Neighboring buildings

7: Being interviewed by  a local news station....I was also interviewed on Friday Sept 20 by the KPIX  news team from San Francisco. My parents had no word from me for three days and  on Sept 22 ( I believe) they saw me on the news in San Francisco to know that I  was still alive. The KPIX news team found me in front of the American Embassy  where I had gone hoping that they would help me contact my parents.

8:  People leaving the scene of the piano rescue...all wearing masks to protect us  from the "death dust"....