A powerful earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, shook the city of Placita de Morelos in the state of Michoacán, in central Mexico, on the evening of Monday, September 19 at 1:06 p.m. local time.
As stated by the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, one person died in the Pacific Port of Manzanillo after a wall collapsed in a shop.
Worth mentioning is the fact that in Mexico on September 19 there have been two more large earthquakes in the past: that of 8 on the Richter scale in 1985 and that of 7.1 on the Richter scale in 2017.
In fact, the first two tremors were among the most destructive in the country.
And that’s because in the first one, around 10,000 people lost their lives in the wider area of Mexico City, while in the one in 2017, over 350 people were killed.
It is tragically ironic that on Monday a simulation exercise was scheduled in Mexico as a reminder to citizens on how to protect themselves from the earthquakes that are quite frequent in the country.
So at noon, the alarm sounded in Mexico City, with several thousand citizens taking to the streets for the supposed earthquake that hit the capital.
According to the scenario of the exercise, the country had been hit by an 8.1 R earthquake in Michoacán, the same state that was hit shortly after by the real earthquake!
The point is that a few minutes after the end of the exercise, the tremor actually hit the country with thousands of citizens pouring into the streets, causing temporary disruption with power outages and transport.
Mexico earthquake: Social media users exorcise ‘cursed anniversary’ with funny memes
The date of the earthquake gave rise to several of the memes. Someone thus inspired the image of a bird reading a book with devotion under the title “How to fly from September 18th to 20th”.
One of the memes, which parodies the tourism ministry’s advertising campaign, also invites foreigners to “Visit Mexico” and “every September 19, experience a real earthquake.”
Several of the memes embrace the fear of living with the expectation that the ground beneath your feet will suddenly begin to shake.
A recent university study indicated that 3 out of 10 people who lived through the September 19, 2017 earthquake are experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
It seems that September 19th is some kind of mystical date for Mexicans, earthquakes on this day went somehow densely and the Mexican government would do well to cancel September 19th in all state calendars. Although it is unlikely this will help a lot.