One year on, Mexico City residents still picking up the pieces from quake

Record ID: 1356843

  • Title: One year on, Mexico City residents still picking up the pieces from quake
  • Date: 18th September 2018
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (FILE - SEPTEMBER 19, 2017) (REUTERS) RESCUE WORKERS TAKING A VICTIM FROM COLLAPSED BUILDING GENERAL VIEW, RESCUE WORKERS ON COLLAPSED BUILDING RESCUE WORKERS WITH VICTIM RUBBLE WITH PAN TO COLLAPSED BUILDING PEOPLE LOOKING AT COLLAPSED BUILDING GENERAL VIEW, COLLAPSED BUILDING VARIOUS, RESCUE WORKERS ON BUILDING MILITARY GUARDING RESCUE OPERATION AREA
  • Embargoed: 2nd October 2018 19:47
  • Keywords: Mexico earthquake natural disaster recovery efforts structural damage
  • Location: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
  • City: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
  • Reuters ID: LVA0028Y5N7SZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A year after a deadly earthquake struck Mexico City on September 19, 2017, some Mexico City residents are still struggling to move into permanent housing and reassemble their lives.
    One year ago, a 7.1-magnitude quake rocked the Mexican capital and its surrounding areas. At least 369 people died, causing more devastation in the capital since the 1985 disaster that killed thousands. Some houses were simply flattened by the shuddering tectonic shift which the government and the private sector estimated caused billions of dollars of damage.
    Clean up work is still being done on damaged buildings and people continue to live in makeshift wooden shacks and tents set up at the foot of condemned buildings.
    Sitting in a temporary home set up in the garden of the apartment building where he used to live, 64 year-old Ignacio Antonio Melo said, "it's almost a year since this (apartment building) collapsed, it's only a few days away from being a year. And what have we done? Nothing. The exterior walls are up, nothing else. They only made holes for the sidewalks because with the apartments, with the buildings, they have done absolutely nothing."
    The Mexican government initially offered aid to families displaced by the quake, but the sheer scale of the disaster means it will be a long road ahead for those left homeless.
    More than 160,000 quake victims claimed government assistance for damaged homes, and some 20,000 schools reported damage to buildings from the quake, according to officials speaking six months after the quake.
    Others are seeking to understand how such damage occurred. Speaking at the unveiling of a report detailing buildings damaged in the quake, Salvador Camarena said, "government workers were negligent in the face of the use of false documents or faced with information that what was previously constructed did not match with what had been authorized. In this city, the authorities sign and grant permission without reviewing plans or soil studies. And, even when they review them, cases occur where these government workers do not have the minimal professional knowledge to provide a correct evaluation."
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