24 years after Mexico City's worst earthquake

Today marks 24 years since Mexico's worst recorded earthquake. They (the first and its aftershocks) destroyed major parts of Mexico City; the 8.1 magnitude disaster killed upwards of 10,000 people, depending on which source you ask. The government (at the time, the PRI, the political dinosaur that controlled Mexico for about 70 years) had more conservative estimates, but some groups put the number as much as 45,000. No one has an exact figure, but what we do know is that it instilled an awareness in defeños.

Yesterday I was walking near my office and I saw a few hundred people on the street taking part in an earthquake drill, which are obligatory in this sprawling metropolis. At my last job, the entire 31-floor Torre Mural had occasional drills where everyone had to quickly and orderly gather near the elevators and in single file go down the stairs to the ground level. I did two of these in my year at the law firm, one drill and one actual evacuation.

On May 22 of this year, I was at my desk on the 20th floor doing some work 30 minutes into my lunch break. Suddenly, I felt dizzy and disoriented and thought I was falling off my chair. As I shook my head to regain my sense of vision I looked behind me and could see the glass panels and steel structures swaying. Many of the 90-some employees had already left the office for lunch, but the remaining few stood up, bewildered, and asked "did you feel that?!" as the brigadista (the designated person who organizes office workers in such events) announced over the loudspeaker to gather near the elevators. We waited there a few minutes as the brigadista made sure everyone was ready to evacuate. Twenty sets of stairs quickly became tiring, but they weren't as crowded as I expected since most of the building was at ground level already.

My new job is much closer to the ground. I'm on the fifth floor of the building housing The News, a few quick leaps down the stairs.

While likely half of the city was destroyed, the Mexico City Valley seems to have a slight but growing case of amnesia. Many of the post-quake buildings in middle and upper class areas were constructed keeping in mind that mid-80s day, but many weren't. Some buildings seem to be poorly built -- even new ones -- while 85's survivors sit vacant and loom over us as a reminder that they are ready to come down to earth if disturbed by any strong movement...such as this one on Insurgentes Avenue:




Following the earthquake, residents moved further and further from the downtown area or out of the city altogether. Santa Fe, a former dump-turned posh business district laden with skyscrapers and pretentious apartment complexes, was built near the outskirts of the city to avoid the dangers of constructing over soft soil. Much of the city is a dried-out lake bed, with many neighborhoods poorly planned even after the earthquake. 1985's earthquake had its epicenter on the Pacific coast, hundreds of kilometers from the south-central megalopolis, but with its structure and crowdedness, the Federal District is sensitive to moving and shaking. Let's hope that we don't have to relearn the same lesson again.