At least 100 dead in Mexico earthquake
Magnitude-7.1 quake is second in Mexico in less than 2 weeks
At least 100 people were dead after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck on Tuesday, crumbling dozens of buildings across a wide area 32 years to the day after a major quake devastated the capital city in 1985.
The earthquake was the second to strike in 12 days. An earlier temblor rocked southern Mexico and shook the capital.
Tuesday, residents spilled out of buildings — many stayed in the streets until authorities inspected their buildings. Sirens blared throughout the afternoon. Federal Police were spotted bringing in sniffer dogs to find victims.
Many of those in the streets said the force of the quake was as strong as the 1985 earthquake, which claimed thousands of lives, left many more homeless and reduced parts of the city to rubble.
“This was the same as 1985. It shook bad,” said Gustavo de la Cruz, a parking lot attendant. He spotted a light fixture falling from a pole, but said the damage appeared a less severe as the last time. “That 1985 earthquake wrecked Mexico City,” he said.
Others saw the damage firsthand. “There was this explosion,” said Ubaldo Juárez, a barber riding his bike through the trendy but hard-hit Condesa neighborhood. “I saw this cloud of dust, like something out of a movie.”
The Sept. 7 earthquake triggered an alarm system in Mexico City — quakes often occur far from the capital, which offers a window of 45 seconds to one minute to evacuate buildings. That didn’t occur this this time.
“Normally you have a warning. But this just struck,” said Juárez, who got down on his hands and knees to brace himself.
The earthquake came ironically on the same day as the 1985 earthquake. It’s a day when Mexican civil protection officials conduct earthquake drills — and office workers, students and apartment dwellers practice abandoning their buildings. A drill occurred barely two hours before the Tuesday quake hit.
The 1985 quake killed an estimated 9,500 people and destroyed about 100,000 homes. That quake, a stronger magni
tude-8.1, was only one of several over the past few decades to hit Mexico, one of the most seismically active regions in the world.
Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera on Tuesday said buildings fell at
44 places in the capital alone. President Enrique Peña Nieto tweeted that he was on a flight to Oaxaca when the quake struck, but he returned immediately to Mexico City, where the international airport suspended operations as personnel checked structures for damage.
President Trump on Tuesday tweeted: “God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.”