26
Friday. October 11. 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Communication
Of Life!
It' \I \\ 1111',IN)
pW,•; I
V I AIC ■ 1-1
11
1 L in
• Hi
7.000 persons and de-
.-,troyed hundreds of buildinizs
They also :truck terror in the
heart, of Detr•iiters larold and liaise
Sltwedel
Shwedeis .
Kenneth, is a
ton -year resident of Nlexico City, with
∎i.ife. t wo Children
vice presidency'
of the Banco Nacional de Nlexico,
nev‘ mountain id, home
Although 'be south-of the-border
Shwedels had w II tressed numerous
nu lair (makes. Iiose wags worried ahuut
the new home. Hilt into till' side Of a
jlid h(' ctit;L:trophic effects
4 the t w,, Swpteinher tremors which
regH t er ,d 7.7 mi d 7Il on the 161iter
through quakes be-
fore that were Serioll:-, el101igh to put
cracks in the walls. - said Rose. "Once
•Ken was staving at a hotel and felt
himself getting dizzy- lie thought he
was having a heart attack. Then he
realized that he was dizzy because the
hotel was swaying in an earthquake!"
The Shwedeis had no success in
trying to telephone Ken, Fst her, and
grandsons Yosi, age 3, and Danny. 1.
after' die Sept. 19 quake. Telephone
service and ()titer means of communi-
cation with Mexico remain badly dis-
rupted eyes today . three weeks after
the quakes. So the Shwedels turned to
other's for help.
A friend, Sue Freedland. started a
chain reaction. She contacted Barry
Kaufman. a memher of the Oak Park
Amateur Radio Club. Kaufman's
They ye
been
rep:tire d . -0} !
d. 1.. nlight w as pa
ill 01(01
nieni b er
Ed
Poll
ak
other Detroit
Ill'
to Huh
In Saint illield;111(Ito
HAMs
radio opiiratorsl.
Pollak, a HAM operator since t h e
age of It hrought into play several
thousitnil dollars wort h radio
equipment and his •15-fool antenna al
his home in the 1• Mile-1,ahsf'r area.
He hail liln . adv been contacted by the
HA NI einergenci. coordinator tor Oak-
land County and asked to try and pas,
hrough several other - health and Wed-
fare - inquiries to Mexico.
It took five hours On tile ;lin lust
waiting in line, - Pollak recalls, "before
I could break in with my inquiry. - The
11AM operators follow specific proce-
dures to keep their transmissions or-
derly. It would he 20 hours olcontinu-
ous monitoring before Pollak could
give the Shwedels an answer.
And the
'AL.\ .
not ha',,-
I nin;n third-part• iransinis-
s iiio--•„ so the Shwedels w•re unIhle to
11,1 a phone-Ai:itch liiiI \\ ith the
II:A \Js. An,i t hough t hey received
"11119. report, 1. ! - nun HAM
and telepli•oi, calls from Ken's ac-
quaintance- returning Iron) Nlexico to
the 1 . .5.. direci conmilinicatpm for the
I, mily was simw in coming.
on! Ihelr ',Ill
1
letter dated Sept 2 , 1 told the
Sliwedel.- that Kert . s family and home
wo.re tine. - TIti• house shook it little,
but nothing else. No broken glass nor
f a llen tiles like when we lived on Chi I-
ii;incingo Street." Ken wrote.
damage to the city until he returned
imd listened to the radio. He took his
children to the Jewish ('-ommunity
( 'enter and saw more of the damage on
the way. He spent several days work-
ing at home before returning to the
"'Esther, nevertheless. is some-
what upset and nervous. 11'ith ' , very
sound she lumps. thinking it is
hank offices downtown.
ken and Esther met while they
t within Yosi wants to know'
when the I ghthulb will move ;Igitin. -
Harold illitiSed
1010110 call from Ken a few days later
Pollak did not have to stay in the
upstairs bedroom that serves as his
radio station for the entire time. He
and his wife, Ellen, who is also an
tinitteur radio buff, have hand-held
radio units that look like police
walkie-talkies for use outside their
home. "I spent part of the tune at the
barbershop," Pollak says, "listening to
another HAM monitoring the Mexico
traffic."
because he was in the shower. Son
IZocky in Poston later called his par-
ents to say that Ken had called Poston
because he didn't find anyone home in
Detroit. The Shwedels scrambled to
call their son back, only to he told by a
disbelieving operator that very few'
calls were getting through because of
quake damage to telephone equip-
ment.
Happily for the Shwedels, Ken
and his fancily were fine. ,A MexiCall
radio operator relayed the news
through it Florida HAM to Pollak and
via \Vest Bloomfield HAM Hank
(;oldherg.
Their immediate fears allayed,
t he Shwedels anxiously
bid direct
Rocky reported that the morning
of the quake Ken had been preparing
to go . jogging. When the tremor began
grabbed the two children from up-
stairs and huddled in a main-floor
doorway. - The house sustained no
damage and Ken took his morning
run, not learning of the extensive
were students at the University of
Texas. Esther' is the daughter of Mexi-
can Jews and her family also lives in
Mexico City.
Initial reports relayed by Mexican
HA Ms reported slight damage to
Jewish neighborhoods. Mexico has ap-
proximately 35,000 Jews, with the
majority living in the capital. How-
ever, the American Jewish Joint Dis-
tribution Committee reported that six
.Jews were killed and an estimated 500
Jewish - owned businesses were de-
stroyed.
Although the immediate enter-
genc ,, has ended in Mexico, Pollak con-
tinues to monitor the airwaves. He be-
lieves t hat amateur radio during
emergencies takes precedence over' his
business, which is part ownership of
the Youth Center and For Kids Only
clothing stores. Pollak, and son David,
age 14, are trained tornado spotters for
the National Weather Service as
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