The top floors failed in the Hotel Continental in Mexico City.
Earthquake movements called oscillations caused the collapse vertical supports in these buildings.
Another failure of the upper
The earthquake caused the total collapse of Juarez Hospital
The earthquake totally collapsed this steel-frame, 21-story, office building |
Mexico City is the capital of Mexico and the center of the largest metropolitan area in the world. On Septmeber 19,1985 as citizens started a new day, the ground beneath them began to shake. The minutes following brought some of the worst devastation they had ever experienced and changed the course of many lives forever. Mexico City was the epicenter of one of the worst earthquakes in history. It registered 7.8 on the Richter scale. The earthquake only lasted two minutes but created complete chaos for years. After the quake there were an estimated 1,000 deaths in Mexico City alone and 7,200 people died throughout Mexico. Many buildings collasped and fires broke in every region, producing an estimated 4 billion dollars in property damage. Nearly, 250 buildings were destroyed in Mexico City affecting the hotels, hospitals, and shops in the city. The hospitals were filled to capacity and exhausted many of their medical supplies including blood and plasma. The consequences of these few minutes were still experienced far beyond the intial disaster. A great deal of time and money was expended to rebuild the cities destroyed by the powerful quake. Many of the buildings had to be restructured in order to protect them against future disasters. Before the quake, building codes were not enforced. After the quake the government realized the importance of building codes and set aside money for the inspection of buildings to make sure they were up to standard. Of course they could not prevent future earthquakes but they could help reduce the damage and casualties caused by natural disasters. These extra precautions added greatly to the expense of rebuilding, but it had to be done. Prior to the quake the International Monetary Fund had denied loans to Mexico, but reassessed its postion in light of the devastation. Mexcio could not meet its financial obligations because all monies had to go to the restoration of the country. Mexico's total foreign debt at this time was 96 billion. The world's second largest debtor. The population in Mexico was 9,373,400 in 1980. But Mexico's City's population dominates Mexico's economic life. Sixty percent of the nations commercial activity is carried out there. The city accounts for half the country's telephones and newspapers. Mexico's economy had forced people to the growing city. Also, the wages for farm lands are low. There seemed more opportunity for the people in the cities. The concentration of industry made the cities very attractive for the farmers. Every year Mexican's move from farms to cities in search of jobs. This migration and a high rate of population growth caused overcrowding and shortages of jobs in the cities. The disaster that occured further complicated the social and economic factors. The population of Mexico mostly lived in the cities when the earthquake hit. The disaster was the consequence of moving to the cities. Because the cities were the worst hit by the earthquake. This was a trade-off because the citizens wanted economic stability so they moved to the cities. But now they faced being victims to mother nature of which they had no control over. The devastation of Mexico's earthquake was definately one the world's worst disasters. The destruction to human lives and property was enormous. The distress people felt that fall day would be forever etched in their minds and span a lifetime. To the rest of the world, it would be a sign of how nature's forces can alter the course of many lives in just a few precious moments. |
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