April 4th, 2010. 3:40 pm. It was a Sunday.
Not just any Sunday. It was the last day of Semana Santa, Holy Week, the Mexican name for Easter.
Most people were at home, getting ready to get back to school or work the next day. A few were still on their way home from their holiday destination.
And then it happened.
Mexicali, Baja California, my city, is considered a Seismic Zone, an area with frequent seismic activity. Every year, we experience our good share of earthquakes. There's a running joke: if it isn't at least a 4.5 earthquake, most people won't even feel it. We are kind of used to them.
There have been, of course, a few big ones…but not that many.
And then April 4th came.
But before we keep talking about the events of that day, let me give you a bit of context.
On January 12th, 2010, there was a 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. To this day, it is hard to estimate how many people died, mainly because of the long-term consequences that came in the following months, but the Haitian government's official count was 300,000.
Then, on February 27th, there was an 8.8 earthquake in Chile. About 500 people died.
In both cases, you could see all the news images showcasing the destruction. The newscasters kept repeating: so many people have died, so much devastation, so much suffering, and pain…they could not stop.
Natural disasters hold a special kind of fascination for us: yes, we are sorry people got hurt. Yes, we wish for everybody to be safe and sound. But we just can't take our eyes away from the screen. We repeat the numbers aloud: "A thousand people died! Oh, my God."
But what do those numbers even mean to us? Can we really hear such quantities and still relate them to actual people? To breathing human beings? When we hear that 5,000 people will spend the night with no food and no shelter, do we actually feel something?
Or do we just get the allure of the numbers game?
"Oh, this tornado killed 100 people. Oh, but the other one killed 250 and destroyed the whole city."
Is it some kind of competition?
Is it sadder when more people die? When more people lose everything they had?
Isn't it enough to know to confirm that we are not in control of anything? That as much as we would like to believe that we are the masters of creation, nature can rip everything away from us?
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