The day before yesterday (last Tuesday), Mexico remembered the victims of the 8.1 earthquake that killed over 10,000 people in Mexico City 32 years ago. At 11 am there were preventive, orderly drills in which hundreds of thousands of people took part to rehearse what to do (and most importantly, what not to do in the event of an earthquake). Merely two hours latter dozens of buildings collapsed and hundreds of people died in a cruel joke of destiny.
At 1:14 p.m. I was getting ready for a meeting while I was finishing my next Steemit post (now I will post that one in two days, since I wanted to share this experience first). It was a perfectly normal day. Suddenly I lost my balance and nearly fell. The furniture in my room came down violently and the walls and ceiling began to crack, making a horrible noise. People started to scream and cry. The way from the fourth floor to the ground level felt like ages, seeing people in panic attacks exiting every apartment on my way downstairs.
When I finally reached the building’s front door I saw a group of people in nervous breakdowns stuck in a bottle neck. Due to the shock no one could open the door and all were yelling while dust and small pieces of concrete fell from the ceiling as the building continued to shake savagely.
I managed to get to the door and open it and we all went out. For still some seconds more we saw our building, and every other building around us move and make horrible noises, the sturdy concrete sounding like breaking toasted bread. Once neighbours in crisis began to breathe better and calm down everyone tried to call their relatives. No one could. There was no signal.
After some time we went back into the building, to find extensive cracks in every floors. I packed the essential and left for a friend’s house. I have still not been able to return home since we are waiting for engineers to check the building. The danger of collapse is still high.
The real shock came as the phone signal came back and we discovered that many buildings were destroyed and there were fires and gas leaks all over the city.
After a couple of hours I arrived at my friend’s house. We still spent two hours trying to locate and pick up her nephew and niece in the middle of chaos in the city. When we were sure they were safely home we went to buy some water bottles and ice bags and brought them to the people helping at the nearest site where a building had collapsed, just one block away from my friend’s office, where she was at the moment of the earthquake. Trying to locate friends and family took all the rest of that day. The real work for us started the following day (yesterday).
My business partners opened a disaster relief logistics & aid distribution centre. Yesterday was the most inspiring and heart-warming day of my life. Citizens from all ages and walks of life gathered at that house to help. We received food, medicines and tools to help the rescuing groups, and distributed that aid in motorbikes, cars and school buses. Entire families poured into the house, bringing things that are invaluable to all the brave people working to rescue the survivors in the nearly 50 destroyed buildings in the city and the hundreds of affected areas in two dozen villages.
These days I have seen Mexico at its finest: citizens taking command, strangers helping strangers, families becoming logistic units, people saving, comforting and supporting other people.
As I write this post the efforts continue. I just needed a moment to write this to honour the amazing people out there showing why the man is not the wolf of the man. Many thanks also to the international community, as it is standing up for Mexico. Thank you.
If you wish to help you can contact the InterAmerican Heart Foundation Mexico via facebook and we will make sure your help goes to efficient, well-organised, citizen-led logistic centres such as the one my business partners set, and thus directly to the most affected areas: https://www.facebook.com/ficmexico.org/
All this re-ignites one question in my head (the one I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, "Blockchain vs Hurricanes"): How can we make blockchain become a tool for more effective disaster relief efforts around the world?
