* Above, an hour after the tremblor, Eje Central back to normal.
At the moment it struck, I was standing inside my apartment when a strange movement drew my eyes up. A strong wind, I thought. My curtains were fluttering, my little palm tree was flapping, and the doors in my place were swaying in unison.
Oh shit, another earthquake.
I threw on some jeans, grabbed my cell phone and keys, and ran out the door. In the hallway a woman stood in her doorway holding a small baby, eyes wide and panting. The light fixtures on my floor were swinging wildly. Shit shit shit. I ran out onto the street, into the crowds.
Everyone outside, standing around, looking up, at each other, trying to get a signal on a cell phone.
A magnitude 5.7 quake that lasted 15 seconds struck Mexico City at 2:24 p.m. on Friday, less than a month after a 5.6 quake hit us at the peak of the swine flu feargasm. That quake was centered in Guerrero, while Friday's quake epicenter hit in Puebla. Either way, any quake in this part of the earth hits the densely urbanized Valley of Mexico -- a former network of lakes -- the hardest. That quiet early morning of September 19, 1985, when an 8.1 monster left the great city in ruins, still looms large in the popular consciousness.
This shaker, thankfully, left no major damage or victims. The government responded swiftly today. Everything got quickly back to normal. (I posted updates from the shaky afternoon on Twitter.)
But still ... You can't help wonder ... What's next?