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Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Got a 5.8 quake today in Guerrero that shook us up a bit in DF. Been some time since I've felt one here.

MO39 · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:57 am Post subject:

Guy, when did you feel the tremors here in the D.F.? I was taking a very late afternoon nap (cause I'm recovering from a bad case of a flu-like illness) today around 7 pm, when the bed began to tremble and my new "persianas" began to wobble a bit. At first I thought it was a big truck passing by, but since big trucks take a rest on Sundays, I realized it must have been a slight earthquake.

notamiss · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:07 am Post subject:

I was doing my shopping at the Comercial, and I had just made my selections at the panader�a, and was next in line to have my bread priced. Just as the girl took my tray, the guy right behind me in line said Tiembla, �no? S�, est� temblando and I was thinking "what? what's he going on about?" and then I felt myself swaying gently and in the same second, the girl realized it too and said "No quiero morir" and hesitated for a second because if she was about to die, why bother spending her last moments pricing my bread, and I was just about to say "go on, do my bread, we're not going to die" and then we all realized that nothing was falling off the shelves so it probably wasn't so bad, though it did go on for what seemed a long time, probably 5 or 10 seconds, but it didn't get any worse and then it stopped.

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

Take a look at this website, its great for checking out the details of quakes...

Linked to the earthquake you're all talking about: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008ricc.php

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

My wife, as usual, panicked, grabbed the bag with the important documents and headed for the door! We are in the penthouse, so understandable, but strange how the locals panic more than the foreigners. And she hasn't really seen a good one - she had the good luck to find herself in Ensenada in 1985.

hlamb · Joined: 09 Dec 2003 Posts: 431 Location: Canada

I felt it here in Cuernavaca. I was in a movie theatre and thought at first it was just shaking from the loud sound system, but then someone quietly said what it was.

dixie · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 644 Location: D.F

It was the first one that I have ever felt. I was in bed, and at first thought it was one of the dogs moving around. But then I realized they were still flat out, and motionless, but that the closet doors, and light fixture were also rocking.

It wasn�t as scary as I have feared, but I don�t need to experience another one!

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:55 am Post subject:

notamiss · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:22 am Post subject:

The description of unpreparedness sounds more pre-1985. The infrastructure certainly was unprepared in 1985 and citizens organized spontaneously to fill the gaps left by the authorities' disorganization, incompetence and failure to act. After 1985, policies for earthquake readiness and education were designed and implemented. They started having earthquake drills in schools and teaching schoolchildren and people of all ages how to protect themselves in an earthquake. When my kids were in in primary (5�10 years ago) they had earthquake drill ("simulacro") at least every September 19, on the earthquake's anniversary. The slogan for earthquake behavour taught to children and posted inside schools is "No corro, no grito, no empujo".

In banks, for example, and public buildings, among others, there are signs showing safe behaviour and places to take shelter in an earthquake. Those weren't there, I'm told, before 1985.

I wonder if the fact that you haven't observed this preparedness means that things have gone slack over the years.

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:15 am Post subject:

notamiss · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:29 am Post subject:

Yet the fact that these "plans" exist, even if largely ignored, is more than what was there before (basically nothing), even if it's not going to be much use. I don't defend the status quo as being sufficient, just want to point out that it used to be worse.

My theory is that people who were around in 1985 were traumatized for life. Pre-1985, my husband told me that Mexicans were very casual about earthquakes and found it amusing that people in other countries would rush outside in panic.

Anyone I've talked to about it who was around in 1985 recounts how they took months or years to be able to sleep anywhere except the ground floor, or to be able to turn out all the lights in their house at night, or whatever the particular effect on them was. Likely even those who are too young to remember, or born after 1985 also picked up the sense of insecurity from their elders.

Even if the number of buildings, or even dwellings that collapsed in 1985 was a relatively small proportion of the whole city, in absolute numbers it was tragically large. The scenes of collapsed apartment towers and hospitals were burned into every capitalino's consciousness, and it is hard to convince yourself that staying inside the building and taking shelter is safe when you carry the memory of those images.

MELEE · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:36 pm Post subject:

My girls preschool has a monthly drill. But they don't tell the students what it is because they are afraid that will scare them. (not sure about that philosophy, but this center is for UP to 4 years old, so we are talking children under 4) Each month they post a thing at the door that tells the parents how long it took for them to evacuate all the children.

I also agree pre 85 (or here 80 as there was a big one here that leveled the town in 1980) are tramatized for life. The buildings that were around at that time completel colasped and a lot of people were trapped under rubble--that explains the desire to run out of the building that fear of being trapped. But with the mess of electrical wires in the streets means that the buildings (especially newer ones) are probably safer than being in the street. You also may have noticed that there is a distict architecture to most primary schools around the country (especially ouside of the city center) it's even been used here at our university. Blocks of no more than 5 class rooms, with butressed corners. That is to keep the children safe in an earthquake--I've been in two fairly large earthquakes in such a classroom, and nothing at all happened to the building.

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

It's a good point that notamiss makes, and perhaps I'm wrong to laugh at my wife's panic. Although she was out of the city in 1985, her family was living in Col. Guerrero, very close to the major damage, and probably even closer to where the Nuevo Le�n tower completely collapsed in Tlatelolco. She couldn't contact them immediately, as telephone lines were down, so I can only imagine what was going through her head. I guess that would leave some scars. (Btw, they were OK!)

notamiss · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:04 pm Post subject:

Did anyone feel this one, apparently just after 5:45 am this morning? I didn't, yet it registered quite a lot larger on this DF sismograph than the one that started this thread. The sismograph, BTW, can be seen at http://www.ssn.unam.mx/website/html/SSN/mxig-gif.jsp. According to the Servicio Sismol�gico Nacional, it was 5.4 at the epicenter near Huetamo, Michoac�n.

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:49 am Post subject:

We had our "drill" today. Silly me, I thought it would consist of instruction from the teachers followed by a drill and then an evacuation. They just shouted "earthquake" and had the students hurry out of the classes and downstairs. We did two drills and the second one was done in "only" 2:11. There was no head count or roll call of students, and nobody said what they should/shouldn't do. Then we trooped to the auditoreum to watch a documentary about the 1985 Mexico City quake. Then the guy from Civil Protection asked some questions about the statistics in the documentary and that was it. It was also interesting that they stoped the show just as it started to talk about the reasons the majority of the buldings that collapsed were government built schools, apartments and the general hospital...

I thought we were going to watch something about preparing for an earthquake, taking cover/being safe during the quake and what to do afterwards. Oh well! Just run outside and hope for the best!

BTW I've seen ambulances trying to get through traffic on Periferico during rush hour, imagine hour things will be during a real emergency. Having a medical emergency is the one thing that really worries me here in Mexico City. If you have to get to the hospital and the ambulance can't get there, you're probably die. What to do? Take a taxi? Even worse. Maybe just call the National Commision on Human Rights and complain your right to life is being violated Razz