Mexico commemorates 30th anniversary of tragic 8.1-earthquake

Mexico Saturday commemorated the 30th anniversary of the tragic earthquake, 8.1 on the Richter scale, which devastated Mexico City and killed over 6,000 people, according to the city government's civil protection institute.

At 07:19 local time (12:19 GMT), when the earthquake hit the city in 1985, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto flew the flag at half mast in Mexico City's main square.

At the same time, in Solidarity Square, Mexico City's Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera set down a floral offering in memory of the victims.

Three decades on, many Mexicans who survived the quake still had vivid memories of the ordeal. But they also said that with the diverse prevention methods that have been implemented since the disaster, they feel safer now.

"How can one forget the day of the earthquake in 1985! I was young but the image of how the block of flats fell apart always remains in my memory," Jimena Rios, a survivor from the Tlatelolco area of the city, one of the worst affected parts, told Xinhua.

Jimena, 41, a housewife with two daughters, remembers well what happened in the morning of Sept. 19, 1985. She was getting ready to go to school when "the glass in the windows started to shatter."

"My mum, older siblings and I shouted and then we got out of the building because the walls of the flat began to crack and also the building next to us," recounted Jimena.

Jimena's story is just one of the many that the survivors could tell. The quake knocked down over 370 buildings including housing, hospitals and schools, and a total of 2,831 buildings were damaged to some extent by the disaster.

At that time, there were few prevention measures in place for any type of natural disaster. But after 1985, Mexico learned from its lesson.

After the earthquake, the Construction Law and Regulations for Buildings in the Mexican capital was modified. Now, every new building is built to resist quake of 8.5 on the Richter scale.

It has been a learning process which has spanned over several years including important steps such as the formal creation of the National Civil Protection System in 1986, said President Pena Nieto publicly on Friday.

Apart from this system, the president mentioned that work is underway to set up a Risk Atlas to prevent and attend to possible earthquakes.

Created by the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Geophysics Institute, the Atlas will help construction companies know where to construct new buildings without running risks from earthquakes.

The government is also working on a general Civil Protection Law and other regulations.

With improved building standards and the protection system, Mexico is now better prepared to face earthquakes, said Cinna Lomnitz Aronsfrau, emeritus researcher at the Geophysics Institutes of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

In 2017, Mexico will host the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in recognition of the Latin American country's institutional evolution in disaster reduction and its contributions in the field of civil protection since the 1985 quake. Endi