1985 Earthquake: A Tragedy That Changed History

In the space of two minutes, close to 30 thousand structures were damaged, and another 68 thousand buildings suffered partial damages. The Regis Hotel collapsed due to explosions caused by gas tanks.

Suburbs like Tlatelolco, City Center, Doctores, Roma, and Obrera were heavily affected.

Among the most important buildings that collapsed were the Nuevo León del Conjunto Urbano Nonoalco Tlatelolco, Juárez family complex; Televicentro (today known as Televisa Chapultepec), the Televiteatros (today it is called Centro Cultural Telmex), Hotel Regis, the Juárez Hospital, The General Hospital and the National Medical Center.

Another important historical and iconic building that collapsed was the famous restaurant Super Leche, located in Eje Central in the city center, and today it is now the underground station, San Juan de Letrán.

Civilians and police ran to the collapsed building of Super Leche to save the people that were stuck in the rubble.

Several of the deceased were covered with blankets and placed on the avenue Eje Central, which is in the heart of the city. This was carried out so families could go and identify the bodies of their deceased relatives.

Due to electricity failures and severe structural damages to Televicentro (today known as Televisa), radio became the most efficient way of keeping the population informed.

The searches continued amidst the rubble over Juárez Avenue and Lotería Nacional street.

Many of the ruined buildings reported explosions in their gas networks.

The authorities were slow to respond, which is why the civilian population became volunteers and first responders.

Buildings over five stories high collapsed, leaving behind small heaps of rubble only a few meter high.

Here we see collapsed structures across the Juárez Avenue and José Azueta street, areas located in the heart of Mexico City.

The evacuation of buildings and dangerous zones were carried out immediately, in order to protect civilians and begin the search and rescue efforts.

There were several replicas, and the most significant one took place on the 20th of September at 19:38 hrs, with a magnitude of 7.3 degrees on the Richter scale.

Civilian search parties were organized immediately after the event and people were rescued from the rubble alive.

The retrieval of bodies from the ruins was inevitable.

The search and rescue efforts reaped positive results, since thanks to the efforts of these parties, many people were rescued from the rubble.

Close to 4 thousand people were rescued from the rubble, some of them 10 days after the earthquake.

In over more than 500 wrecked buildings, supervision and rescue brigades were carried out.

This event showed the enormous solidarity of the population. People from all kinds disciplines took to the streets to help to the best of their ability, either by moving debris in search of trapped victims, preparing food, donating medicines, or moving the injured using private vehicles.

The impressive human chains formed by civilians and volunteers were critical in the removal of debris from the ruins.

To help the population, a civilian brigade was created called, "Brigada de Rescate Topos Tlatelolco," a group that to this day continues to work in several rescue operations around the world.

Institutions like PEMEX (Mexican Petroleum Company) created search squads and teams to remove the rubble.

Another fundamental organism was the Mexican Red Cross, which supported the lifeguards, victims, and volunteers.

To this day, the exact number of victims in unknown. In the first reports, 3,629 were estimated and in the final official number released in 2011 by the National Seismological Systems, over 40 thousand people were affected across the whole country.

While the international community offered help and assistance, the President of the Republic at the time, Miguel de la Madrid, refused this aid. He believed it wasn't necessary, and he prohibited the participation of the military in the rescue efforts. Time after he had to back down from his statements, and accept the generous help, which arrived from several corners of the world.

The top stories of the former National Financial building, located in the center of the city collapsed.

One of the most devastated areas was the sewing workshops in San Antonio Abad, where several deaths were recorded.

Hundreds of buildings were completely or partially damaged.

A large number of companies, businesses and companies stopped operating for several days, as well as government offices and schools.

The Doctores suburb was one of the most affected areas in the city and where the most buildings collapsed.

Basic services like telephone lines, transportation, and electricity took time to be reinstalled, which is why the transfer of goods had to be carried out with what was at hand. Over 150 thousand jobs were estimated to be lost.

All public transportation was free and many local citizens gave free rides.

The water system in the city suffered deep structural damages, causing the water quality to be insalubrious. People were advised to drink soda, since at that time there was no bottled water.

152 buildings were demolished after the earthquake due to structural damages. This led to the modification of rules and construction regulations in Mexico, as well as a change of mindset in civil protection initiatives.