Last night, I was woken around 11:45 by what could be nothing else but an earthquake, my first in two years. I knew this was a big one, at least a 7 if not 8-pointer, having experienced one before. But there are no fault lines in Yucatán and there’s never been an earthquake here, at least as per the quick Googling I did. I also checked in with Protección Civil and they didn’t have anything up. So I figured that with Hurricane Irma lighting up seismographs, I must be feeling that.

So I was devastated to wake up to news that Mexico’s worst earthquake in 100 years has decimated the states of Chiapas and nearby Oaxaca.

Chiapas is one of the poorest states in this country and doesn’t have great infrastructure. There have been many deaths and so much damage from this earthquake and the counts can only rise. 🙁 I was talking with a lady the other day who had just come back from San Cristóbal, a city with a small expat population (that is way too BRR for me to consider), who talked to me at great length about the disparities between Chiapas and Yucatán.

Here in Mérida, at least one hotel was evacuated as a precautionary measure.

As far as I can tell, there is no damage to the house here. Last time I experienced an 8-pointer, I was practically on top of the epicentre and my house was damaged. Here, I got the weird rippling sensation all through my body as I laid in bed, but nothing seemed to move in the house. Puppy apparently slept right through it!

While I’m blogging, I might as well answer the question on everyone’s mind — no, Katia is not going to hit us. It’s going just north of us and probably going to slam in Veracruz. 🙁