I just wrote this morning that today, September 19th, is the anniversary of the two worst earthquakes to hit Mexico City in modern times... in 1985 and then again in 2017.
This afternoon Alejandro called me and said, "Have you heard the news?" There was another earthquake today.
Shortly after noon the national earthquake drill was held in commemoration of the two deadly quakes that occurred on this date. Alejandro said that when the seismic alarm went off for the drill not many of his neighbors bothered to leave their houses. Less than an hour later, at 1:09 P.M., the earthquake app that Alejandro has on his cell phone went off. He thought that there must be a mistake. Then the city's seismic alarms went off. Many people at first thought that it was just a snafu related to the earlier drill. Then they started feeling the vibrations of an earthquake, and everyone was rushing out of their homes; some were in tears.
The quake was centered along the Paciific coast near the border of the states of Michoacán and Colima. Its magnitude registered at 7.6 on the Richter scale. That is stronger than 2017's 7.1 quake. Fortunately for Mexico City this quake was centered farther away than the one in 2017. There have been no reports of death, injury or damage in Mexico City. There has been one reported death in the city of Manzanillo, Colima.
I suspect that people in Mexico City are going to view the date of September 19th with even greater trepidation, and perhaps they will not ignore future earthquake drills.
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