“Here come the Americans to blow up our Mexican buildings.” Would it work? The building shook like hell. It turned out I was in charge of the Embassy. I told them we would need them in the Embassy, but their personal considerations were clearly more important…. The earthquake was located about 110 kilometers northeast of Rome. 1985-09-19 13:17:47 UTC 8.0 magnitude, 27 km depth Arteaga, Michoacán, Mexico 8.0 magnitude earthquake 1985-09-19 13:17:47 UTC at 13:17 September 19, 1985 UTC Making matters worse, on the evening of September 20, a magnitude 7.5 aftershock shook the region. He was a cousin of one of the leading writers of Mexico, Carlos Fuentes, who he called Charlie Fountain. We convinced him not to; another small task accomplished. We were trying to make them more professional, but they would editorialize right through that Gavin might have said there were 20,000 dead, but that couldn’t be the case because of whatever or whatever. I remember many stories about heroism during those next few days. One is of two American Embassy officials who attempted to save lives of people caught in downed buildings. Partly because of inadequate building codes, the … As an aftershock struck on September 20, the Mexican government then announced that it would be willing to accept help. The airport runways were thought to be damaged on the first day. She didn’t mingle with people in the way the Bushes did typically on their airplane. This is a city and urban area of 20 million people in the valley, of which seven or eight million people were directly affected by the loss of services; the loss of electricity, water, sewage facilities, all of which began to cause disease problems. Counselor for Public Affairs in Mexico City from 1978 to 1983. By the second day I think it could take airplanes because the runways were indeed not damaged. Q: I get the sense here that throughout this whole conversation, the earthquake and the aftermath didn’t do much to cement good Mexican-U.S. relations. Again, groups began to form to do something about the pollution or to speak about what was happening to the city, and I think all of that great foment in civil society is what led to a reform in the political system in Mexico. And even when Presidential orders were given, they were sometimes not followed, or could not be followed. They weren’t evidently hostile but something could have happened to her in such a large crowd. Any aid that we gave would be only a symbolic gesture, a drop in the bucket. In the aftermath of the 1985 earthquake, an early-alert earthquake warning system was established in Mexico City and other safety measures were enacted. More than 80,000 people perished as a result of the quake, while an estimated 4 million ...read more, On April 18, 1906, an earthquake and subsequent fires devastated San Francisco, California, leaving more than 3,000 people dead and destroying more than 28,000 buildings. In 1985, Mexico City was the world’s largest urban area. On the morning of September 19, 1985, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake hit the western states of Mexico and including Mexico City. The effects of the quake were particularly devastating because of the type of ground upon which the city sits. They also strengthened one corner of the building. PASTORINO: No official Americans and just a few American citizens. The government’s response to the tragedy was unthinkable. And, secondly, he observed that the pattern of destruction was very uneven, so while it was worse in some sections of the city than others, it was not uniform. With more than 16 million residents, the city had been growing at a ludicrous rate – over 4% annually through the 1970s, with a growth rate of close to 40% in the city’s periphery. But the greatest credit goes to the thousands of Mexicans that dug those first few days, saving hundreds of people. I believe it was 30 or 40,000. I had been officially appointed by the DCM when he left, to be in charge. ), Stanley Zuckerman  In response, citizens organized their own rescue brigades. Though the epicenter for the 1985 earthquake was over 200 miles away from Mexico City, the disaster nearly flattened the capital. They had left me in charge of the Mission but Washington didn’t know that. I am sure the implosions, which were successful, saved many lives. A study in contrasts in american history study 1985 earthquake mexico city case. Stanley Zuckerman was a Counselor for Public Affairs for Mexico City from 1978 to 1983; he was interviewed by Kennedy beginning July 2004. That second night I was in the Embassy until 1 or 2 in the morning. The control tower operation was down so the airport was closed. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. The Mexicans were profoundly dilatory about taking us up on our offers of help, and she wasn’t going to solve that problem. That quickly spread from earthquake-related things to environmentally related things, the fact that Mexico City was such a polluted city. I went back inside the Embassy and upstairs to my fourth floor office after the twenty minutes like I had planned. Then we went to the embassy and she gave a speech. Ambassador Gavin went to see Placido Domingo and his relatives for instance at a building that was destroyed so he could console surviving family members. Most of these people interacted with Mexican lower level government officials and with the Mexican population. We got on the plane and flew to California. Research a process analysis for errors in causal analysis is however the magnitude and type of strategy is required. We also have to remember that there was a major aftershock thirty six hours later, about 7 o’clock at night the next day. ©Copyright 1998-2021 Association for Diplomatic Studies & Training All Rights Reserved. Most of the damage was focused on the historic downtown area of Cuauhtémoc. 1985: Mexico suffers devastating earthquake A massive earthquake has hit Mexico not far from its capital, Mexico City, causing untold casualties and widespread damage. Connie Gavin set up a foundation, very quickly, within a month, and collected money to bring kids that were badly maimed for re-constructive surgery in Los Angeles. More than 400 buildings collapsed and thousands more were damaged. The 1985 Mexico City Earthquake was an earthquake that happened in Mexico City on September 19, 1985. Sally Grooms Cowal It was the worst earthquake to hit Taiwan–where quakes are common due to its location in a seismically active ...read more, At 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994, a 6.7-magnitude quake struck the San Fernando Valley, a densely populated area of Los Angeles located 20 miles northwest of the city’s downtown. I cannot believe that the government actually impeded the rescue efforts that brave civilians had begun. HUGHES:  During the brief period that I was on the NSC staff in connection with Mexico, my main activities were planning a trip that Nancy Reagan made to Mexico and accompanying her to give a symbolic donation of a million dollars to the victims of the September 1985 Mexico City earthquake and dealing with a presidential phone call between de la Madrid and Ronald Reagan. Quakes, most of them minor, and none as strong as the one in 1985, remained a constant feature of life in Mexico City. Since I’d gone through earthquakes in San Francisco, and the big one in Caracas in our first assignment, I wasn’t scared or nervous. It was my job. It had a magnitude of 8.1, and the number of people killed added up to 10,000 deaths. But then they reached the sandy loam of the lake bed underneath the center of Mexico City. The first thing, the highest priority, was to determine that all of the Embassy people were safe, that all official American personnel were safe. Almost always no smoke, no dust, and every brick falls right where it’s supposed to. They pulled a few survivors out of the rubble, but mostly these buildings just came right down. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government or of ADST. Earthquakes are worse in mountains which of vibrate more than flat land. I remember the back wall of my secretary’s apartment just fell out into the back yard. In addition, 250,000 people lost their homes, and … But then I began to see the destruction from the windows and we began to get reports that parts of the city had been seriously damaged, with many major buildings downed. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. We hurried through the calling because we knew the phone system in Mexico City was progressively failing as the central exchanges were literally falling down. We had to take care of them. I took the stairs down to the lobby, and went across the street to the Sheraton Hotel. It turned out later that one of his close friends, Placido Domingo, lost some of his family in a collapse of a twenty-five story building. To this day, the Mexicans say it was less than 20,000. On the other hand, on one of the first days, I called a Congressman in Los Angeles and asked him not to send a plane load of supplies, because they were not things that were needed. Mexico City Earthquake, 1985. The ...read more, On October 8, 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook the Kashmir region (a disputed territory controlled in part by Pakistan and India), along with sections of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. It was still peaceful. The Embassy had a telephone network, in which everyone calls everyone else in a certain order. Considerable damage and injuries were reported in other parts of the Umbria region. Economic and Political Counselor. We just sent advance teams directly to Mexico to get this set up on about 48-hour’s notice and coordinated with the embassy to work out a schedule which mainly involved the First Lady arriving, going to Los Pinos, meeting with de la Madrid, giving him the check, touring some sites of devastation around the city, meeting with the embassy staff and saying some words with them and then flying on to California. By comparison, Denver, Colorado, nicknamed the Mile High City, is 5,280 feet above sea level. The quake was centered off the Pacific coast of Michoacán, more than 200 miles west of Mexico City, the nation’s capital. But for the most part, American government officials acted with great courage. Mexico City was still the political, geographical, and cultural center of the country. I think it was on Day 3 that Ambassador Gavin sent me to the airport to see if we could get certain goods released. Some of these buildings were ready to fall down and they were dangerous. So there was probably 100,000 tourists. Learn how to update your browser. On the morning of September 19, 1985, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake hit the western states of Mexico and including Mexico City. But the Mexican people recognized how much the Americans helped by sending assistance and helping in the reconstruction. So they wouldn’t just report the facts and then put their editorial opinion on the editorial page, saying he shouldn’t have spoken this way or he didn’t have the facts corrected, it would all be interwoven in the same story. At first, the president rejected offers of international aid and played down the damage caused by the quake. Of course, he wasn’t there that first night, and was reporting the disaster based on pictures from a few neighborhoods. It was appropriate to speak publicly about issues relating to our interests, but dangerous to tell Mexicans how to manage their own affairs, at least in public. Within a few more hours I learned that this was probably going to happen so we turned to and set up the visit. Finally, after some trying, some genius in our Communications section patched me through to Washington through Louisiana, and Atlanta. A lot of people hadn’t panicked the first day; the aftershock though brought many to the edge of desperation. John Gavin’s nomination by the President caused consternation and some disdain in the Mexican press and the public because he was identified as an actor. I went onto the roof and I could see buildings collapsed within two or three blocks. Tips to keep in mind for World Mental Health Day; Oct. 5, 2020. Mexico City earthquake of 1985. The Mexican government, thinking that it could handle the situation after the earthquake by themselves, initially refused any foreign aid. The Secret Service had great difficulty with the Mexican authorities maintaining any kind of crowd control around her. One is that 20,000 people had died, because he counted the number of buildings times what he assumed was the occupancy of each building, and it was clear that most people in those buildings would not survive. Between Mexico City and the epicenter 250 miles to the southwest lie the Sierra Madre mountains dotted with remote towns. The event was televised nationwide and in those parts of Mexico City which had electricity. Maybe that was because I had been through many earthquakes before, including one just as serious. Fortunately, the quake was early enough in the morning that people weren’t yet in their offices. Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid declared a period of mourning starting from September 20. These two guys heard screams and dove in to the flooded basement waters of the severely damaged hotel trying to save drowning hotel guests. But I was more at ease because Ambassador Gavin and Busby were both back. I said that the last thing in the world the Mexicans need is the First Lady coming to Mexico right now. Mission Mandate: To airlift aid to Mexico City after a major earthquake. The day after the earthquake I was called at the NSC and asked how do you think the Mexicans would react to the First Lady coming to Mexico? And we began to prepare cables about the situation. Mexicans spooked by earthquake on anniversary of 1985 quake Mexico: Earthquake rocked Mexico City on Tuesday by a magnitude 7.1 quake which killed at least 100 people in the capital and 230 nationwide, 32 years to the day after another deadly temblor hit the city. It made it extremely difficult to read these stories or they would turn the story around. There was a very large earthquake in September of 1985. It had a magnitude of 8.1, and the number of people killed added up to 10,000 deaths. Of a population of 18 million, an estimated 10,000 people were killed, and 50,000 were injured. Of course, the Mexicans refused to accept his figure. He was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy starting in March 1998. Excélsior would probably have 30 stories on the front page. Assistance was just not flowing and not flowing fast enough, and people were without electricity and they were without water and they were without homes, and they began for the first time to organize themselves, in neighborhood groups and community groups, to do something about this. What could one do to stop the quakes? I went to the airport to meet the Chargé d’Affaires, Morris Busby, who was returning from Northern Mexico. The phone system failed almost completely shortly thereafter. Later, the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico City, led by John Bruton, collected large sums of money and rebuilt schools. On September 19, 1985, the Mexico City area was struck by a devastating earthquake that killed at least 9,500 people. She is not going to be able to put back a building or dig out civilians or something like that. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. AID sent many of them because it was in charge of our disaster relief at that time. It was all got up in a few days as you might imagine right after the earthquake. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was definitely one of the most devastating natural disasters in history. That continued for five years. The powerful earthquake killed more than 10,000 and left another 30,000 others injured and as many as a quarter of a million people homeless. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake: an excerpt from “Shooter” ... They’d built a lot of the new buildings in Mexico City, with the elevator in the center of the building to form a steel core like the rods in reinforced concrete. At around 7:19 a.m. on September 19, 1985, Mexico City, one of the world’s largest urban areas, was jolted by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake, one of the strongest to ever hit the area. I got on the phone about 10:00 a.m., when we found out everyone was okay, and tried to call Washington and tell the State Department that the American and Mexican Embassy personnel were unharmed. Every minute, people came into my office to ask about a myriad of subjects, both personal and professional. The quake ruptured the San Andreas fault to the north and south of the city, for a total of 296 miles, and ...read more, On October 17, 1989, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 67 people and causing more than $5 billion in damages. Oct. 8, 2020. It was not totally closed. It had a magnitudeof 8.1, and the number of people killed added up to 10,000 deaths. (You can also read Ambassador Prudence Bushnell’s experience with “disaster tourists” after the Embassy Nairobi bombing. Earthquake shakes Mexico City On September 19, 1985, a powerful earthquake strikes Mexico City and leaves 10,000 people dead, 30,000 injured and thousands more homeless. There was a huge controversy. Canadian Operation Name: (Mexico 1985) Canadian Operation Dates: 1985/09/19 – 1985/09/26. He landed and said to the press that he thought there might be more than 20,000 deaths. On this day in 1985, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake rocked Mexico City and its surrounding environs at 9:17 a.m. EDT (7:17 a.m. local time). It was still run totally by the PRI. To this day, Embassy people remember that event and the talk I gave. I remember Dan Rather telling the world that Mexico City was completely destroyed. We weren’t even sure they would be able to be sent the first couple of days. I remember there was a big deal when we brought down to Mexican City an American company to implode buildings. Nancy Reagan’s trip was I think her first foray into a foreign policy role. She was surrounded by this mob of people. To this day I can’t remember a word I said. Western Mexico is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes with the Pacific plate and Cocos plate moving against the North American plate actively. More than 10,000 people died as a result of the quake, some 30,000 others were injured and an estimated 250,000 people were left homeless. What the aftershock did was make many people really panic. Did you know? I think that on the second day shipments were already beginning to come in from the States. At any rate, he counted the number of buildings down and he made two observations to the press as he got off the helicopter. I really got my appreciation for the damage at 11 o’clock that night. In fact, some of the neighborhoods close to it were badly damaged. I don’t remember feeling sorry for myself. As for me, I was frequently told that I remained fairly calm the whole time. The city has ...read more, From the stone cities of the Maya to the might of the Aztecs, from its conquest by Spain to its rise as a modern nation, Mexico boasts a rich history and cultural heritage spanning more than 10,000 years. Most of them came in to the Embassy to work. Financially, we had already offered the Mexicans a variety of technical assistance from sniffer dogs to special jacks and engineering gear to try to rescue people from collapsed buildings. And that a lot of that probably had to do with corruption, that maybe it was paid for that there should be 50 bags of sand and cement or whatever it was, but 15 bags went in, because it was more expensive to build things to code. On September 19, 1985, at 7:18 in the morning, the residents of Mexico City were jolted awake by an 8.1-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest to ever hit the area. Some people said later that I was too calm and didn’t appear very sympathetic. 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