Mexico City / MEX Area 19 Sep 2017 Earthquake Damage / Issues
 

Mexico City has experienced a serious earthquake, centered in nearby Puebla. The 'quake has caused significant damage, including the MEX control tower.

AICM was closed for a short time. (My sister and nephew were en route from LAX on Internet and their aircraft is being diverted, though we don't know to where yet.)

Today is the 32nd anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake of 1985.

TWO quakes now.

7.1 centered in Puebla state, and now a 6.8 centered in Morelos (other side of the City).

Just terrible. I've been looking at the flight diversions which have been all over the place. What will be interesting to see is where the longhauls from Europe divert to. Last I looked, most were still continuing onward towards MEX, like your sister's flight.

My sister just sent a WhatsApp they landed at AICM! By way of CUL, GDL and TLC. Too bad they can't get the extra miles... LAX-CUL-GDL-TLC-MEX.

Saw a few videos - does not sound like a good time to be in DF :(

My "genre" (peeps) on the ground are saying this was worse than the 8.0 two weeks ago (the 8.0 epicenter was distant, these were much closer), and are reporting chaos. 42 reported dead in my home state of Morelos, so far. (They arrived T-1 and are en route to their home.)

Main Airport roads are closed; the Terminal 2 road is a mess. Some looting, mostly assaults on automobiles, are being reported.

...and of course, I have a trip planned to MEX for next week. I suppose, my timing could have been worse. :(

If there are no sequels, it should be reasonable by next week.

My sister and nephew tell me this evening they're not much traffic and they've made it home (Jardines del Pedregal, not at all "downtown",) okay.

of course I had a trip in the UK when MAN was attacked, and of course again I am going to MEX this Friday when this happened...

For now, AA's travel advisory does not even cover any dates after tomorrow. My coworkers (frequent travelers) were like "just cancel your trip asap"...

You'll be fine. I was in T2 at MEX yesterday when the quake hit. My flight was cancelled last night and re-booked for this morning. I spent last night in Mexico city and flew out of T2 this morning.

The main airport road (Entrance road to T2) was fixed within 2 hours of the earthquake.

Mexico city appears to be in pretty decent shape. I took a cab downtown last night and the city appears to be in good shape. Minimal power outages, roads are in good shape, etc. the worst damage is pretty localized closer to the epicenter and isolated to buildings of poor construction.

I'm in Merida tonight and all is well in this corner of Mexico.

Mexico City / CDMX is not back to normal at all. My friends and relatives there are keeping me informed. The "Topos" (moles) and other formal and ad Hicks rescue teams continue searching for trapped people and in many cases removing debris by hand due to the danger of heavy equipment crushing people. Rescue efforts continue at Rébsamen elementary school to rescue children still trapped.

Many shelters have been established to house the many suddenly homeless. Aid workers are still arriving from various countries.

Mexico races to save 12-year-old girl as quake toll hits 237 - Reuters
https://apple.news/Amp-p-d61S2aNjMvocpQMQA

In Mexico City, rich and poor had little in common. Until the earthquake hit. - The Washington Post
https://apple.news/ANDsxX0BPTgeonLfDNbDBGA

Seven hotels are currently temporarily closed due to earthquake damage:

Holiday Inn Coyoacán
Le Méridien Mexico City
Eurostar Suites
Hotel Ejecutivo
Excalibur
Hotel Filadelfia Suites
Hotel Misión

Am due to be there September 29 - October 5, right now I am still going as most things I am seeing/doing look to have come through it OK, including Foro Sol where I am seeing U2 on 10/3-4, but am monitoring the situation.

There is a good illustration in this New York Times article showing the pattern of damaged buildings extending along an axis from near Zócalo south past Coyocán towards Xochimilco. This must be the parts of the valley where the soft soils shake the hardest.

Thanks for the article link ^

Interestingly enough from some news sources this type of earthquake apparently did more damage to about six story buildings due to DF's (sorry CDMX is still new to me) soil.

I was there a few months after the 1985 earthquake when things were mostly cleaned up, but you could still see damage even then. Remember going inside one of the old churches, and you could see how it tilted by the way wires for hanging lamps would not be parallel to the walls :eek:

Parts of CDMX are actually built on lake fill. Earthquakes essentially can cause liquefaction, and we can imagine the old lake beds as a bowl of Jell-O on a table (bedrock). Stick a fork in the bowl of Jell-O, shake the table, and the fork in the Jell-O moves the most. Link to NY Times article. (My sister lives in Jardines del Pedregal, on solid lava flow - less oscillation, less damage.)

Tenochtitlán, the ancient Aztec capital, was like Venice - built on fill with extensive canals. The final battles the Spanish fought they basically filled the canals with rubble. Tenochtitlán was the center of the City - the Templo Mayor is still there to mark the ancient center.

The redder, the worse the effect.

A great illustration of the problems we sometimes face in Mexico.

The people of Michoacán contributed two flatbed trailers of durable foods, blankets, water, etc. to the earthquake victims in smaller, off the beaten path villages of Morelos, my home state. The flatbeds arrived in Cuernavaca, the state capital, where the crews sought direction for where the most affected villages that could benefit from these donated goods.

At the order of governor Graco Ramírez' wife, Elena Cepeda, whom he appointed to head the DIF welfare system (Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia), the trucks were impounded and scorted by police to unload their goods in a state DIF warehouse, so the state welfare program could distribute these goods later, marked and even repackaged as Morelos DIF goods sent by the governor, his wife and the Party of the Democratic Revolution party in a publicity blitz abd blatant attempt to garner votes - and an unnecessary delay in delivering the goods. Only, the warehouse was already full of goods and no distribution was planned, so they were escorted to a second warehouse with the capacity to store the goods. The goods were unloaded and stored.

Social media shaming got governor Graco Ramírez to release the donated items. Story over, yes?

Nope. Media investigations revealed more purloined donated goods in two warehouses owned by Ramírez' son.

Some longtime family friends and family who knew and had contacts in impacted villages got together a collection (to which I of course contributed) purchased durable foodstuffs, water and other necessities at warehouse markets, sent them in unmarked trucks directly to impacted villages. Believe it or not, we could have gotten in trouble - at least, we'd be required to pay substantial bribes to officials to let the goods get through to suffering people.

This may serve to give an idea of how and why bribery is widespread. It's not intended as political discussion about Mexico, merely a caveat.

Desafortudamente, lo entiendo.

Came across this video of an AM 787 being tossed around while at a gate...

Is Mexico City back to a point where tourism would not be a burden on recovery? I am ticketed for travel next week and still looking forward to going but only if welcome.

Flew through there today (T2). The airport is back to normal operations. I'd say that other than the worst damaged areas the city is back to normal.

I stayed at the Hampton Inn - Historical district the night of the quake and that area was functioning as normal.

http://hamptoninn3.hilton.com/en/hot...HHX/index.html

YMMV, depending on what part(s) of the city you plan on visiting.

Would also love to know the answer to this, and if not ready now, would leisure travel in a couple of months be appropriate?

Um, see post directly above yours @:-)

There are locations in the CDMX where ongoing rubble removal, etc. is ongoing, and afterwards there will be reconstruction. But most of the tourist and business areas and services are functioning, so though one is likely to see some damaged buildings, etc. they're not likely to be affected.

Just be sure bookings haven't been affected from damage caused to your hotel, etc.

I've family that reside in CDMX, both downtown and the suburbs, as well as around Cuernavaca, Morelos and am in daily contact with them.

Here's a short video of what it looked and sounded like from my point of view.

The airport took it like a champ. The lights didn't even flicker.

The microphone on my iPhone picked the audio up pretty well. You can really hear the "rumble" of the quake.

I just got back last night from a week there, other than Roma/Condesa and a small bit of the Zona Rosa, I didn't really see any earthquake effects. The city was bustling as always and tourist sites are open. Even in Roma and Condesa, businesses were functioning normally, the number of buildings affected - while badly affected - were quite small compared to the total number that exist. Biggest area of damage I saw was on a two block stretch of Avenida Amsterdam. Also still small camps for displaced people set up in Parques Espana and Mexico. Zona Rosa also had a bit of damage, including one building that was destroyed at Calle Genova just south of Reforma, but is still standing. But it's an even bigger mess right now due to ongoing street renovations, Calles Amberes and Londres are all dug up.