What Mexico earthquake, Wine Country fires have in common
There is a saying that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. That seems to be the case with nature’s lesson plan in California and Mexico.
The teachable moments from Mexico’s recent quakes and Wine Country fires resonate, and not only because of our historical and familial ties. The combination of technology, human ingenuity and resilience which emerged as the ground shook and fire enveloped us provides wisdom for the next catastrophe.
But some truths are perpetual when disaster hits.
First, when nature slams us, the poor get hit the hardest. Data from the journal Nonprofit Quarterly compared damage suffered in Haiti from a 7.0 earthquake near Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010, to an 8.8 quake hitting Chile six weeks later. The Haiti quake killed an estimated 200,000 people. In Chile, the death toll was 525. The difference is measured in Haiti’s poverty.
The situations in Mexico and California was no different. The 2017 September quake killed nearly 400 and destroyed or damaged thousands of buildings. In Northern California, 42 were killed, with 8,400 structures and over 140,000 acres destroyed.
Massive amounts of aid poured into both areas, and reconstruction is underway. Having traveled to Mexico City and Sonoma in late October, I observed resilience everywhere.
Life was back to “normal” with preparations for Dia de los Muertos and Wine Country visitor promotions taking on deeper meanings of remembrance and determination — not just to survive but to live.
But the victims most challenged are those already struggling: the poor, disabled, elderly and children. In rural Jojutla, Mexico, half of its masonry buildings were destroyed. Thousands are living in tents donated by the Chinese government. Aid arrived slowly — in fact, it was surplus diverted from Mexico City.
In California, the two counties hardest hit by the fires are the two with the highest poverty levels among those ravaged: Mendocino and Lake counties. What these areas have in common: low-income housing systems that get people into homes but forget about insurance when disaster hits — and government outreach that never reaches those already on the margins.
Second, technology without common sense won’t deliver results in a natural disaster.
Mexico City has an earthquake early warning system which sets off sirens 15 seconds before a quake. This system, combined with local common knowledge, allowed thousands to evacuate their buildings safely.
“Evacuate don’t procrastinate” is the standard response there because of the soft soils in the region. Soft soil causes greater building instability; Mexicans know in these conditions it’s better to evacuate immediately.
In California, forest management professionals believe one cause of severe wildfires is fire suppression and lack of forest management. Historically, oak forests were regularly burned or allowed to burn by California native people to enhance the health of the oak savanna ecosystem.
These cultivated fires rejuvenate the soils but do not damage tree canopies. Without these traditional management practices, our oak forests have become overgrown and stressed. When fires do burn, they are more destructive canopy fires, rather than rejuvenating ground fires.
Beyond common sense innovation, the resilience of those impacted taught new lessons in courage and even humor. As the shaking continued, Mexicans poured into buildings to save lives and even filmed the seismic power enveloping them. In California, one victim used his chain saw to cut his family out of a burning car.
To catastrophe, Mexicans and Californians sent their best — ordinary people whose first instinct was to help and, afterward, to unite in advocating for improvements in land and building maintenance.
And in Jojutla, there’s a joke going around: If Americans need bricks for the building of walls, they have plenty of inventory.