Mexico City gets unsteadily back on its feet after quake

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Mexico City's infamous traffic jams were back on Monday as offices re-opened after last week's deadly earthquake, but the closed schools and clusters of homeless people served were reminders that life in the megalopolis has not yet returned to normal.

The M7.1 quake on Sept. 19 killed at least 325 people and left thousands homeless, with many of them living in tents in the streets or emergency housing. Others among the 20 million people who live in greater Mexico City were gradually resuming their routines, however.

A collapsed building after the earthquake hit Mexico City, Mexico on September 25, 2017. /Reuters Photo‍

"You can't say that everything has totally returned back to being normal, but we do feel more safe that we did last week,“ said market researcher Diego Sandoval, 27, back at work in an office in trendy Condesa, one of the worst hit areas of town, and lining up at a taco stand with a dozen other office workers and laborers.

The most visible sign of the city coming back to life where the rush hour queues after a week of eerie quiet along the avenues and highways that criss-cross the capital, known for its gridlock.

People stand next to the tent outside the house affected by the earthquake that hit Mexico City, Mexico, September 25, 2017. /Reuters Photo

"We just opened up today, getting things back on track. We've been closed since the earthquake," said Martha Bertha Martinez, 70, who along with her sister runs a small grocery store in Tlalpan, a southern neighborhood.

"Life goes on," she said.

More than 44,000 schools in six states were due to reopen on Monday, but only 103 in Mexico City, or barely one percent of its schools, was set to resume classes after they were certified as structurally safe.

Officials said they did not want to impede relief efforts, so more than 4,000 public schools and nearly as many private schools in the capital will remain closed for now.

The family member of a victim trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building reacts after an earthquake hit Mexico City, Mexico, September 25, 2017. /Reuters Photo

The National Autonomous University of Mexico, with 350,000 students at campuses in and around Mexico City, resumed classes on Monday.

Of 6,000 damaged buildings, some 1,500 have yet to be inspected, said Horacio Urbano, president of Centro Urbano, a think tank specializing in urban issues and real estate.

Urbano said 10 percent of the damaged buildings were constructed after 1990, by which time strict building codes had been enacted in the wake of the 1985 earthquake that killed some 10,000 people.

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Source(s): Reuters