In Puebla, church steeples had toppled in the city of
Cholula, A second church, which was built in the 17th century, fell in
Atzala during a baptism, killing 11 people including a baby. At least 44 buildings collapsed in Mexico City due to the earthquake, trapping people inside, creating large plumes of dust, and starting fires. Several buildings caught fire.
Condesa,
Roma and
del Valle neighbourhoods were among those most affected in the zone: a building located on
Álvaro Obregón Avenue collapsed, and several buildings on
Ámsterdam Avenue suffered damage. The building housing the
Philippine Embassy in Mexico City was badly damaged, requiring it to vacate the property. Gas leaks were reported, along with "piles" of rubble from collapsed buildings.
Comisión Federal de Electricidad, the national electric utility, reported that 4.78 million customers lost power in Guerrero, Morelos, Puebla, State of Mexico, Oaxaca,
Tlaxcala, and parts of Mexico City—roughly 35% of the company's customers in those states. However, none of the
generating stations in the region sustained structural damage.
Mexico City International Airport suspended operations while damage assessments took place, but reopened at 4:00 p.m.
CDT (2100 UTC). 180 flights were cancelled or diverted during the closure. A plane carrying President
Enrique Peña Nieto, returning from touring damage in
Oaxaca from the
earlier Chiapas earthquake, was diverted to
Santa Lucía Air Force Base.
Mexico City Metro service was temporarily cancelled on several subway lines due to a power failure, but restored by 17:30, offering free service to stranded passengers. Building evacuations also caused delays to
Metrobús service in the city. The federal
Secretariat of the Interior (SEGOB) declared a state of emergency for all 33
municipalities of Morelos, for all 16
boroughs of Mexico City, and 112 of the 217
municipalities of Puebla. The declarations allow funds from the National Natural Disaster Fund (FONDEN) to be used during the emergency response phase. A damage survey by American structural engineers revealed that a number of collapsed buildings had been erected in the 1960s and 1970s with
unreinforced masonry walls confined by non-ductile concrete frames. The hashtag #FuerzaMéxico (Be strong, Mexico) was used on social media outlets. Mexico's political parties offered to help victims in different ways, including the diverting some of the money they receive from the government for their campaigns. After months of debate and legal challenges, the donations were: PRI US$5,792,000, PAN US$2,479,000, PVEM US$524,000, Movimiento Ciudadano US$2,529,000, Encuentro Social US$506,000, PRD US$1,239,000, and Nueva Alianza US$2,081,000; Morena and PT did not specify how much they would donate. Although these amounts were not reported to the national election board
Instituto Nacional Electoral. In association football,
Copa MX postponed that week's matches in the
2017 Apertura tournament round of 16 to mid-October in the aftermath of the quake. All major national competitions—including
Liga MX,
Liga MX Femenil, and
Ascenso MX—followed suit; Liga MX president Enrique Bonilla stated that "we'd like to bring the people a moment of happiness in this tough time, but it's a more complex decision than that and it's necessary to have all the information from the authorities." The
Mexican Navy reported that a child named Frida Sofia was believed to be still trapped under the debris of the Enrique C. Rébsamen School; the story would be widely publicized by Mexican media outlets, including coverage of apparent rescue attempts. However, by 21 September, it become increasingly clear that Sofia did not actually exist; that day, the Navy's undersecretary confirmed that all the children in the school's rubble had been accounted for, and that there was no record of a "Frida Sofia". Mexican media outlets, including television broadcasters such as
Televisa, faced criticism for their
sensationalised coverage of what was ultimately a hoax. "Timmy O'Toole" began to trend on Mexican social media in reference to
The Simpsons episode "
Radio Bart"—whose plot focused on a similar hoax perpetuated by
Bart Simpson; in reference to the hoax,
TV Azteca would air that episode the same day.
International response , Los Angeles, was lit up in Mexican flag colours in honour of the victims of the earthquake In response to the earthquake and the preceding one in Oaxaca, by the end of September 501 rescue workers, 32 search dogs, equipment, and over 440 tonnes of humanitarian aid had been sent to Mexico from over 27 countries around the world. Among the countries that came to Mexico's aid were Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Panama, Peru, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the Vatican, and Venezuela, with aid coming from the United Nations and the European Union, as well. including engineers, to help in the aftermath of the earthquake. The contingent had special dispensation to travel during the
Rosh Hashanah holiday, normally forbidden under religious law. The
Japan International Cooperation Agency sent a disaster relief team of 72 search-and-rescue personnel, four search dogs and five tons of equipment with personnel from the Japan Disaster Relief Team, Tokyo Fire Department and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's SAR officers. The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country remarked that it was a show of thanks, as Mexico had sent a search team to help Japan during the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Turkish state aid agency
TİKA sent humanitarian aid – including packages containing hygienic and medical supplies prepared in coordination with the Mexican Red Cross – to Mexico City and Xochimilco.
US President Donald Trump called Peña Nieto to offer condolences, while the White House offered search and rescue assistance. The
U.S. Agency for International Development deployed an urban search and rescue team from the
Los Angeles County Fire Department and experts from the
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance to the affected regions. Celebrities who donated large sums include actress
Salma Hayek ($100,000), Formula 1 driver
Sergio Pérez ($170,000), actress and singer
Ana Brenda Contreras ($57,000), writer
J. K. Rowling, singer
Shawn Mendes ($100,000), Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg ($1,000,000), Apple CEO
Tim Cook ($1,000,000), and others.
Direct Relief, an emergency response organization, provided emergency response kits to a trauma hospital in southern Mexico City. They contained enough supplies to treat 1,000 people for a month. Direct Relief prepared shipments of medicines and medical supplies to improve its support to health care partners within the country. ==Aftershocks==