Santo Domingo - The clock strikes 6:00 p.m., the sun is setting and dusk is approaching. Independencia Avenue is completely closed and cries and screams can be heard in the distance, which become more and more intense as we enter the so-called “ground zero”.

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In a few seconds, we come across a woman, who looks pale, trembling and wipes her tears a little, while her companion tries to give her strength and asks her to take everything with a “little calm”. “Breathe, try to breathe, breathe,” he repeats to her over and over again.

While this is happening, a contingent of rescuers rushes forward, volunteers walk somewhat overwhelmed and believers in a corner, hands clasped, cry out loudly “in the name of God”, in the hope that “a miracle” will happen.

There is no doubt. We have arrived. El Nuevo Día is at ground zero. The place where 226 people lost their lives and 189 others were rescued alive from the rubble of the Jet Set nightclub, whose roof collapsed early Tuesday morning in the National District.

Barely 24 hours have passed since the disaster, but it is as if time has not passed. The tragedy has shattered hearts, broken families and filled with mourning a country that is rich in culture, gastronomy and, above all, stands out as a good tourist destination.

“You have to have faith. When you have faith, things you never expect happen. Have faith”, comments one woman to another, who looks crestfallen, while listening to the constant sound of an ambulance approaching in a hurry, as if warning of the emergency.

It smells like death. That foul smell hits your face hard as the wind blows and, although it diminishes depending on how far away you are, it is the most notable evidence that the Dominican Republic is facing one of the worst tragedies in its recent history.

And here it looks like an attack has occurred. There is debris everywhere, pieces of the roof are on the ground, and the powder keg is whipping mercilessly as the machinery continues to break through in a fight against the clock to find more survivors.

From where we are, we can see almost everything. We have the discotheque in front of us and, to our left, a gas station, whose premises have become a haven of hope, bringing together all the relatives of the victims and survivors.

But it is no coincidence. The Dominican authorities placed a cream-colored tent with plastic chairs so that the victims’ families could at least have a safe place in the area, without access to the press, where they await news of their loved ones.

In their faces you can see the sadness, agony and despair that takes hold of human beings when they are waiting for news that they understand may not be very encouraging, or when they simply think that the worst has happened.

“We are here waiting for answers about the sister of a co-worker. We came with her to give her support and we are waiting. We approach every time they take out a body,” narrated a woman, who only identified herself as Jessica.

Like her, there are many more people who remain seated or standing along the block, hoping to find alive that loved one who went out on Monday night with the desire to dance to the sound of merengue singer Rubby Pérez, without imagining the fatal outcome.

The misfortune occurred at 12:44 a.m. on that April 8, in front of a full house. The roof broke in the middle, leaving a trail of blood, national mourning and disbelief. What many believed could not happen, had happened, and at what magnitude.

However, hours after the tragedy, 4,580 people are doing their utmost to continue the intense search efforts. In many of their faces you can see the fatigue, but they do not stop, they do not give up and, in moments, good news happens.

“They have found a woman alive”, shouts a man who begins to give ‘thanks to God’, while the rescuers rush as fast as they can into the rubble, so that the woman can be placed on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a hospital...

However, not everyone is as lucky. There are many families mourning their loved ones and others anguished because they have gone to the hospitals and the morgue and have found no answers. They do not know if their loved one is alive or dead and that, at this moment, is the greatest pain they are going through.

Meanwhile, videos are beginning to emerge on social networks, which are heartbreaking and put into perspective the despair experienced by many of the victims, when a structure they thought was safe, collapsed completely, leaving many trapped in rubble.

“Don’t move, don’t move, gentlemen. God is in control of everything. Thank you, Lord. Oh, my love. Thank you, sir,” one of the survivors, who was trapped in the ruins of the nightclub, is heard saying in a video while other desperate people can be heard in the background trying to get out.

It is impossible to know his name, but he is not the only one.

“I am in a difficult situation and the only thing I can ask right now is that you pray for me, that I get out of here alive, so that I can continue sharing with you and so that I can serve my Lord from now on because look at what I am going through. He has shown me that he loves me,” says another survivor, in a video shown to this media.

Also, in another recording, another man, trapped in the collapsed concrete, alerts rescuers of seriously injured people.

“Come on in, we have bad people, let’s see mommy. We have bad people... Look, there are some people back there who are uncomfortable and can be saved,” he says.

Since the beginning of the emergency, 155 ambulance transfers were made to public and private health centers, where 189 people were rescued alive. However, 226 people lost their lives at ground zero or in the hospitals to which they were transferred in the midst of the chaos.

“These figures reflect both the magnitude of the tragedy and the tireless effort of the response teams who, from the moment of notification and arrival at the impact zone, coordinated search actions,” said the Emergency Operations Center (COE), in its seven-page final report.

The document, consistent with what was experienced at the scene, reveals that, for approximately 59 continuous hours, a total of 4,580 people, including 12 Puerto Rican firefighters, worked tirelessly at the scene, encountering strong scenarios.

Most of the people who died in the tragedy were found seated, indicated the Minister of Public Health, Víctor Atallah, while the government tries to deal with the chaos of an event like this, in which there are not enough hands to deal with all the autopsies.

Precisely, at the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif), a few blocks away from where the tragedy occurred, there is complete chaos. People are desperately screaming in search of their loved ones and others, with some resignation, remain seated at the entrance or outside the building, grieving.

As if the pain of losing a loved one were not enough, they are now faced with the difficult task of looking at photos of their bodies, or listening to graphic descriptions of aspects that, perhaps, resemble their appearance, in order to identify them.

“We are looking for the relatives of a person, a woman, who has a tattoo on her right hand of a butterfly and another of a cross on her back. If you have a relative who has those descriptions, please come here,” says a woman speaking into a microphone, steps away from where we are.

At the moment, we hear something disconcerting. “I think it’s her. Please, come in to verify, let them show you the photos, I don’t have the strength,” says a man to another man who accompanies him in this painful moment.

While this is happening in the morgue and the scenario looks somewhat disconcerting, other relatives of the victims, ordinary people, who are juggling to make ends meet with few resources, have had to resort to mass wakes in municipal cemeteries to bury their loved ones in a hurry, whose bodies are in a state of decomposition due to the magnitude of the tragedy.

In just two days, the municipal cemetery of Bajos de Haina, one of the communities hardest hit by the emergency - and which has lost at least 25 of its own - has faced 16 consecutive burials, a number it has never seen before.

“It’s not easy what we are living through. I don’t think there are words to describe what we’re going through. It feels like there is no hope,” a man tells El Nuevo Día, who prefers not to be identified.

Within seconds, there is a painful, heartbreaking scene that makes you question the fragility of life. A family buries a loved one, one of the five they lost in the tragedy, leaving three young orphans, who promise to follow their legacy and be an example, as their parents were in life.

Among wreaths of white flowers, with messages of remembrance and the recitation of the rosary, the relatives of Juan Manuel Santana, an electrical maintenance technician for the Dufry company, who worked at the Las Americas airport, are preparing to say their last goodbye.

One of his daughters, Manuela, stares at us, with a shattered look, swollen eyes and constant sobs, as if trying to find some consolation in the midst of the difficult moment she is going through with her family, which has even had to break the white coffin, with golden details, where her father’s body is, to be placed in a niche, which is stuck to the ground.

“Yes, I know, sometimes you have to be beaten in order to grow up, and reach a little more maturity, because there would be no way to know, to handle what will come, and although the pain in those times can be so cruel, but God will not let us stay there, longer than we can bear”, Manuela intones, with a harmonious voice, as few have, interpreting the song ‘Sin Dolor’, by the singer Lilly Goodman.

Thus, one of the strongest episodes that any person can be exposed to happens and, when we barely get over what we have just seen, another funeral arrives, another family mourns and prepares to bury their loved one in the same cemetery.

In the midst of all this misfortune, the families of the victims find some consolation in their Christian faith, which is impressive. They have placed altars not only at ground zero, but in their respective communities, to honor the memory of their dead.

Flowers and white candles, together with the flag of the Dominican Republic, stand in front of the destroyed structure of the Jet Set nightclub, in a makeshift altar, which not only shows respect to the victims, but also seems to be a cry for a tragedy like this never to be forgotten.

Well, it is not just a simple number. They were sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers and mothers who lost their lives on a night that was supposed to be a night of joy, merriment and merriment, but which ended up being a total nightmare.

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.