Today marks the 20th anniversary of a tremendous earthquake that shook Mexico City and took over 9,500 lives and 250,000 homes. It was one of those horrible events that you remember. One of those few days in history that anyone from Mexico City can tell you where they were, who they were with, and what they were doing.

I live in Miami, and although many people may not realize it, we were the first recipients of Hurricane Katrina. I’ve never seen so many downed trees in my life. Trees big and small completely uprooted. And although some time has passed, I can still see one of these trees from my window.

I lost power for 5 days. I never understood what that was like before. It’s not fun. Now I’m not comparing my experience to the tragedy that occurred in the Gulf Coast…but through the days and weeks following the storm, I couldn’t help but think about Mexico, a country that I lived in just a few months ago.

I saw the amount of work that went into the clean up here. It still continues, as a matter of fact. But here we have plenty of chainsaws, big cranes and dump trucks, and basically any kind of machinery you can think of that makes lots of these jobs a lot easier.

In Mexico, most work is done manually. Houses are built brick by brick. And if those bricks need to be brought up to a 2nd story, they are usually brought up one by one. Trees are cut down with regular handsaws. Why? I guess because people are less expensive than machines.

Through this thought process, I had to wonder, how would Mexico be able to handle this kind of damage? It’s one of those things that you wish you never find out the answer. Twenty years ago Mexico experienced a horrible earthquake. As with Hurricane Katrina, it is sad to see that the poor were the most badly affected. Today we remember the lives that were lost, and hope that everyone is better prepared for the future.