An earthquake from a journalist’s perspective

Peggy: The next step in my life was to get my degree and begin my career as a writer. It has been very rewarding. I love writing stories about people and their lives and experiences.

Interviewer: It sounds like you've done so many impactful things.  

 Peggy: One of the most gratifying experiences was reporting on a major earthquake in Mexico City. My company had a large number of employees there and many customers. When this earthquake happened, there was no communication. This was before cell phones. So there was no telephone, no electricity, nothing. 

The executives were concerned about their employees. And they wanted to see how the customers were.

So I flew down to Mexico City with one of my writers who spoke fluent Spanish and a photographer. It was interesting flying over Mexico City on the plane — there were these tents all across Mexico City to provide shelter to people who lost their homes.  So my other writer and I, we interviewed the local executives, we interviewed employees to find out how they were doing.

They were amazing people. Some were left homeless. The whole building was destroyed.

The morning of the earthquake, the employees who were living right in the center of Mexico City weren't allowed in their office building.

They all came to work, but they weren't allowed in because the building was unsafe.

So they pulled out desks to the sidewalk.

And they took care of their people of customers right then and there, on the sidewalk. It was pretty amazing.

Interviewer: Wow. 

Peggy: I'm a writer by profession. The other interesting thing was when we arrived and went to our hotel. My room was a little scary. My room was the last room.

On that floor, the whole building separated. So, there was this big crack between my room and the rest of the hall.

So that was scary. 

Oh, in the hotel room were the International Rescue teams from all over the world. And these people still exist. They are going into Gaza to try and provide health and emergency services. They brought their canine dogs to help find people. 

So it was good to be around them, had a few drinks with them. So, that was Mexico City.