Mexico City commemorates 1985 disaster with earthquake drill

Published 21 September 2007

Nearly 25,000 died in Mexico City’s earthquake 22 years ago; city commemorates with a large drill in which 3 million residents participate

Twenty two years ago, on 19 September 1985, an 8.1 earthquake hit Mexico City. The next evening, an aftershock measuring 7.5 rocked the already devastated metropolis. The quake killed 10,000 to 25,000 people and left a quarter of a million homeless. Yesterday, in both commemoration and preparation, the city held a large eathquake preparedness drill, during which city agencies and residents were called upon to resond to a quake registering 6.9 on the Richter scale. Earthquake experts from around the world, including California, had traveled to Mexico City for an international quake conference and watched the exercise. Ellis Stanley, general manager of the Emergency Preparedness Department in Los Angeles, said five Southern California counties north of San Diego are planning their own full-scale earthquake drill in November 2008. The drill in Mexico City gave him a hint of what to expect.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard was twenty-six years old then and what he saw has spurred him to make sure his city is ready for the next disaster. He told the experts at yesterday’s opening ceremony of the Earthquakes and Megacities Forum that his government plans to build a disaster control center next year. The lessons of 1985 have not been lost on Moreno, either. “Experts say that if a government and its people are prepared, 90 percent of the deaths can be avoided,” he said. Then, Moreno cited a chilling statistic. “There is a mathematical model that says that if there was an earthquake today of the same magnitude at the same hour in this city, and if we were unprepared, the number of deaths would reach 100,000.”

Earthquake experts on both sides of the border share the concern that people do not prepare even when nature gives them regular reminders. Mexico City’s unique geography guarantees the city will have strong earthquakes. The city has never been the epicenter, but it has been rocked by temblors centered 250 miles away. This metropolis of twenty million is built on the loosely compacted soil of a dry lake bed, which makes the city shake “like gelatin” when there’s a distant quake in the Pacific Ocean, said Carlos Valdés, who heads Mexico’s National Seismological Service. Mexico had 150 earthquakes between 1900 and 2000 with a magnitude higher than 6.5. Yet officials say few people have even the most basic emergency items