The expression of disbelief dominates the faces of the people.
Fernando Camarena had completed the drill and was back at his workplace, on the 22nd floor of an office building on Paseo de la Reforma, when the alarm sounded again.
Around one in the afternoon, the alert has been given to warn of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter on the coast of the State of Michoacán, whose aftershocks have been felt in the center of the country.
No damage has been reported in the capital so far, said the head of the Mexico City government, Claudia Sheinbaum.
The authorities have reported one death in Manzanillo, in the State of Colima.
“You never expect something like this to happen on the same day and at the same time,” exclaims Camarena.
She is referring to the 2017 earthquake, which killed 370 people, just the same day as the drill commemorating the 1985 earthquake, in which it is estimated that between 3,000 and 20,000 people died.
Hence the incredulous look of some people.
At his work, he and his colleagues have gone back downstairs, keeping as calm as possible, between the laughter of chance and the nerves of an earthquake that shook the building.
"Don't be afraid," a young boy told his girlfriend as he hugged her tightly.
Another boy, Gabriel, smiles nervously when he is asked about the impression the earthquake has made on him.
He says that they were going back to work when they heard the alarm again.
He has become very nervous.
“I couldn't believe it, people were between surprised and nervous and we turned around and went back down.
This day is cursed!” exclaimed Gabriel.
In the street, under the tents, the toilets took the tension from those to whom this tremor, which has barely been felt beyond the shaking of the streetlights and the swinging of the lamps, reminded them of another much worse one, that of 2017. That September 19, the tremor after the drill left 369 dead and a destroyed city, especially in the neighborhoods built on the old lake: Roma, Condesa, Centro and Doctores.
In the In Tlilli bookstore, in the Roma Norte neighborhood, Rosa García has lived through the 1985 and 2017 earthquakes. The shelves of her second-hand bookstore are connected to each other with rusty iron, to prevent the tremors from pulling the books on the floor.
“It has been exactly like in 2017, only that year the alert did not sound,” says García.
She says that she is already used to earthquakes, but what she can't get used to is the siren that she alerts when a new one is coming.
“You don't get used to it!
It's much scarier than the earthquake itself, ”she complains.
Do you think the date should be changed?
—Well, maybe yes, because you can't live like that.
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