Mexico City updates 911 app to push quake alerts to phones

Mexico City: Mexico City has updated its 911 emergency app to send earthquake alerts to residents’ smartphones following last month’s magnitude 7.1 shake that killed 228 people in the capital.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera announced yesterday that users of the 911 CDMX app can now get alerts for any quake strong enough to threaten damage in the city. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

More than 20 million people live in the capital and surrounding suburbs, much of which is built on a former lakebed. Its soil can amplify the effects of earthquakes that strike far away and whose shockwaves arrive in the sprawling metropolis some time later.

Mancera said there would be no demonstration of the system to avoid rattling nerves still raw from the September 19 earthquake.