Seismic performance and recovery of medical infrastructure in Mexico City related to the September 19, 1985 and 2017 earthquakes

Abstract

To date, the September 19, 1985 Michoacán (M_s = 8.1) and the September 19, 2017 Puebla-Morelos (M_w = 7.1) earthquakes have been the most devastating seismic events in Mexico City. During the 1985 earthquake, 13 important public hospital buildings collapsed or were demolished and 5800 hospital beds were lost. During the 2017 earthquake, 85 buildings of the medical sector were disturbed, two major public hospital were demolished and 1147 hospital beds were affected. In this paper, the author concentrates both in reviewing what occurred during the 1985 earthquake, and in reporting what it has been observed for the 2017 earthquake. From the structural viewpoint, the observed damage is discussed in relationships to: a) seismic codes, b) spectral demands, b) structural irregularities, c) soil settlements, d) tilting, e) structural pounding and, f) deterioration. The observed damaged inventory is also put into perspective with respect to the approximate number of medical facilities that are available in Mexico City. An instantaneous drop of seismic resilience for this sector is crudely assessed. Finally, the progress on the recovery process or adaptive resilience is discussed. Fortunately, most of the main hospitals in Mexico City were not severely damaged, and that it was why most of them and the hospital bed capacity in Mexico City previous to the 2017 earthquake was able to be recovered on time to attend the Covid-19 pandemic which affected Mexico since early 2020.