In the Mexican town of Jojutla, hundreds of people have been left homeless by Tuesday’s earthquake and so many buildings are damaged that some locals fear their town may never be rebuilt.

Jojutla is just 50 kilometres from the magnitude 7.1 quake’s epicentre. An estimated 300 buildings were toppled in the town of roughly 50,000 people. A thousand more were damaged so badly they will need to be knocked down.

Workers have been going around the city marking the doomed buildings with dots of red paint. Five square blocks of the main shopping district and at least one school are too unsafe to leave standing.

Raphael Carranko Dias grabbed his family and left his house when the shaking began earlier this week. Now, the house’s foundation is split in two. All he can do is pack up and leave.

At least his family members weren’t among the 293 people killed. “Yes, everything was lost,” he said. “Everything. But we are safe.”

In Jojutla, the concern is not just about where people will sleep, but how they will feed themselves when many shops are closed and the army stands guard against looting.

When food trucks arrive with aid, they are swarmed. “These people … they’re hungry,” said one man. “Very hungry.”
 

With a report from CTV's Peter Akman in Jojutla, Mexico