The Earthquake Drill

Last Saturday, September 19th, was the national earthquake drill.  It is held on the anniversary of the two most serious earthquakes to have struck Mexico City... the catastrophic quake of 1985 in which 30,000 people may have died, and then another quake on the same date in 2017 that killed 220 people in Mexico City.

I had forgotten about the upcoming drill until I saw a large poster on the wall of the World Trade Center the week before.

Although not all of Mexico is in seismically active zones, in recent years the drill has been a nationwide event.

Since the drill fell on a Saturday this year, the emphasis was more on households making emergency plans than on office workers evacuating their buildings.

Alejandro and I left our apartment a few minutes before the drill began at noon.  We walked down the street to the nearby shopping center.  People were gathered outside on the sidewalk.

However, I could see through the windows of "El Cardenal" Restaurant that people were still sitting at their tables eating in the midst of the drill.

We continued walking over to the front of the World Trade Center.  With offices closed there were far fewer people out on the sidewalks, just customers and employees from the stores and restaurants in the building.

I often wonder if there really were an earthquake, how could workers on the upper floors of the World Trade Center (it's 50 stories high) leave the building without using elevators in the few minutes of warning that the sirens would give them.  Their best bet would surely be to select a spot away from windows and falling objects.  Even in my 3rd floor apartment (4th floor by U.S. count), I would not try to head down to the street.  We have selected what Alejandro deems to be the safest spot.  Fortunately the neighborhood, including the World Trade Center and our apartment building, weathered the 2017 earthquake with minimal damage.