A Big Tragedy in Mexico City

Maria Resendiz
February 28, 2008
ESL Level 6

A Big Tragedy in Mexico City

How I can forget that big disaster on September 19, 1985 when the entire city almost collapsed. At that time my brother was studying in Mexico City, but how could he have known what was going to happen. The city was going to disappear in seconds. It took three minutes. Three minutes seems like nothing, but in three minutes an 8.0 earthquake meant a lot. The 8.0 earthquakes created a big disaster, and I will never forget all the people screaming, crying, and looking under the ruins for their families like we were too. The earthquake was so terrible that everyone including my family and I couldn’t forget. that big catastrophe, we would remember it for the rest of our lives.
My brother told us years later what happened on that day during the tragic earthquake that occurred. It was 7:30 AM and everybody was getting ready to do their chores, to go work, and to go to school. Suddenly, this enormous thunder started moving the earth like a blender. Instantly, all the buildings started falling down as if they were made of sand, destroying everything they touched. Four hundred and sixteen buildings were destroyed, and three thousand buildings were seriously damage. In consequence of all this damage, very important buildings disappeared; for example, the Government Palace, universities, hospitals were detroyed, and the most damaged place was the historic Lake Texcoco. That morning no one was expecting an earthquake, but this 8.0 earthquake created massive damage to the city of Mexico.
The consequences of this earthquake were so terrible it affected the lives of thousands of people. As a result of all this damage, ten thousand people were killed, thirty thousand people were injured, and one hundred lost their homes. It was terrible seeing all the dead people and the terrors of the earthquake. People were looking for their families inside the smashed cars, under the ruins, and inside the buildings everything was devastated. This terrible earthquake caused a lot of problems to the people in this city. This earthquake caused people to lose their jobs, their families. This was devastating for the people of Mexico they didn’t even have anything to eat, and the worst thing is they didn’t have anywhere to live. Many people lost everything that they had. I was here in the U.S. when this happened, and I thought that I had lost something too, my brother.
This earthquake not only affected my family in Mexico, but also my family here in Chicago. I was in Chicago in that time when all this happened, but I immediately flew to Mexico to look for my brother. Since I left so quickly, I was able to see the damage the earthquake had left. I had to leave my children and take the risk that something bad could happen to them, but I didn’t have another choice. My family and I started looking for my brother as soon as I got there. We looked for him for five weeks at his school, his job, his apartment but everything was completely destroyed and we couldn’t find my brother. After all this chaos, we were resigned that we lost my brother and I can’t describe the pain that we all felt. I couldn’t stay longer because I had to come back to Chicago to be with my family, and I tried to get relief. After two years, I received a letter from my family were they said that my brother was alive. I couldn’t believe it just as much as I couldn’t believe that he was dead two years ago. I went to see him, and all the family thanked god for my brother’s safe return.
Finally, we had my brother back from the ‘dead’. My brother and thousands of people lost almost everything and many had lost their lives. We were worried that our brother was one of those who had been killed. That was all we thought about, we thought that he had been killed that day. Twenty-two years have passed since then and the city has been fixed and all seems well. I still remember how terrible it felt to hear about the thousands of people who had lost their families and jobs, and how I felt knowing that my brother was among those there. More years will pass, but in the mind of all those people who lived through that 8.0 earthquake, it will still be fresh in their minds.