Post Cards Will Provide a Link to Mexico City Quake Survivors

A massive effort to set up temporary communication with people in Mexico City--where most electronic communications were knocked out by earthquakes two weeks ago--will begin today when Western Airlines flies 250,000 post cards to the Mexican capital.

The plan, in which California state leaders, the Roman Catholic Church and business and labor in both countries will cooperate, was announced Thursday at a Los Angeles news conference by Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy.

The post cards will be distributed throughout Mexico City so people there can write messages to relatives and friends outside Mexico telling them they survived the quakes. Then the cards will be flown to Los Angeles and mailed to their destinations.

“We got moving when telephone lines to Mexico City remained out of action and we saw the enormous anxiety building up among people in this country about what had happened to their families,” McCarthy aide Rick Ruiz said. “Estimates we’ve had indicate that it might be several more weeks before telephone lines are fully restored.”

United Teachers of Los Angeles had the post cards printed, and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor will pay postage after the cards are returned to the United States, Ruiz said.