Mexico City seems to have come through this earthquake much better than it did in 1985. Earlier, I worried that the reason might be that the quake was far smaller on the Richter scale; Dwight Dyer, in comments, pointed out that the epicenter was also much closer to Mexico City and the shaking was likely comparable.
Is there any way to know if the tightening of building codes helped make Mexico more resilient? After all, it is not like the country stopped suffering from corruption in ‘85.
One good sign is that it seems that no public schools collapsed during the quake; only 16 experienced major damage. The horror in the southern suburb of Villa Coapa happened when a private school fell in; subject to the new codes but not under the direct control of the federal government. The reason that the performance of the public school matters is that they were all supposed to be retrofitted after the 1985 quake. Their relatively good performance does not mean that the new codes were properly implemented ... but any public school failures would have been a damning condemnation.
Mexico has a lot to be proud of in how it has responded to the disaster. It also may have much to be proud of in how it prepared.
You take hope where you find it.
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