45 million Mexicans participate in earthquake drill on Wednesday

Published by BBNTEAM at April 20, 2023

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Posted: Thursday, April 20, 2023. 11:23 am CST.

Photo Credit: N+

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: More than 45 million people participated in the biggest national earthquake drill in Mexico on Wednesday. Mexican authorities said the drill was successful.

Reports on Wednesday out of Chetumal at first made some people here in Belize think that the neighbouring city had been shaken by an earthquake which reportedly had occurred off the coast of Honduras particularly after newspaper La Revista Peninsular ran a story on the drill without a disclaimer.

According to La Revista Peninsular the 5.7 tremor was felt at 9:13 am in Chetumal, Cancun, and Playa del Carmen.

El Nacional and TV Azteca ran stories that a drill was being conducted in Chetumal and its nightly newscast leading Mexican media house Televisa reported that the seismic alert had been activated by the national earthquake drill in which more than 45 million people had participated. More than nine million participated in Mexico City alone.

A real tremor had been felt the night before in Mexico City which might have been the reason that more than two million more people in the Mexican capital, as compared to last year’s drill, participated in the drill on Wednesday, Televisa reported.

According to the World Population Review, Mexico has a population of more than 128 million.

Mexican emergency services participated in Mexico’s national earthquake drill on Wednesday. (Photo Credit: N+)

People in different cities, including Mexico City, evacuated buildings and schools and gathered in open spaces in simulation of an earthquake. Going by La Revista and Televisa’s Noticias y Más reports, different areas reported different earthquakes and different epicenters. Note that the Chetumal drill said the epicenter was off the Honduras coast and the quake was 5.7 on the Richter scale, but the Mexico City drill said the quake was 7.5 in strength and its epicenter was said to be in Veracruz. That was for it to be considered realistic.

According to Televisa, this was Mexico’s national drill which had the biggest citizen response. In Mexico City, four disaster sites were simulated including a simulated carbon monoxide leak which had presumably caused the intoxication of 11 persons. These persons who simulated that they had suffered bruises and broken bones were attended to by emergency services personnel like firemen, police, and paramedics.

Even television stations’ personnel evacuated their buildings.

Mexican emergency services participated in Mexico’s national earthquake drill on Wednesday. (Photo Credit: N+)

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