September 2017 Mexico City Earthquakes

Abstract

The chapter presents the results on the performance of the SASMEX during the 2017 earthquakes that hit Mexico City. The approach has been the use of a questionnaire-based survey to a sample population of N=2,400. The results are discussed in the context of a systemic disaster management system (SDMS) model. A summary of the key findings are: 1) for the 07 September earthquake, age and occupation were significantly associated with the performance of the SASMEX system, to the extent that young (13-20 years old) participants considered the early warning system as very useful; however, employees considered it as “not at all” useful; 2) for the 19 September earthquake, age and occupation were significantly associated with the SASMEX performance. In particular, the subjects in the over-50 range considered the system as “not at all” useful, and students and employees regarded it as “very useful”; 3) given 1 and 2, it is necessary to further educate the residents of the capital city on the functioning of the SASMEX system (e.g., its strengths and weaknesses, warning time, etc.).