I'm seeing another Puerto Rico in my own backyard.

What I will give you is that this earthquake in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, that occurred on February 16, 2018 is nowhere near as damaging as a hurricane. The situation here is nowhere near as dire as it is in Puerto Rico; people still have water and electricity and many report a surprising lack of damage. They seem pretty calm about it, all things considered. Below is a screen-cap from an independent earthquake-reporting site of reactions sent in by alleged witnesses of the quake.

We must remember, though, that these people are the ones who had internet access, whose internet wasn't hampered by the quake itself and who had the presence of mind after an earthquake to go online and report it which, probably, is not many. Mexico's relationship with earthquakes this past year has been nerve-wracking after the huge one in September.

What's weird is that American news outlets really don't seem to care about the people themselves, just about the damage and the death toll.

This is the single article the "New York Times" ran on the earthquake, and what it tells us is pretty cut and dry: there was little damage reported and people were worried. That's about it. There wasn't much of a humanistic element, not much about the emotions of the people there, which would make for some wonderful profiles and stories, given Mexico's recent issues with earthquakes. It would allow us to understand what the people are going through more than any death count would.

What goes on emotionally is news just as much as what goes on at a physical level. Emotional news is just as important as this:

Pictured: A ruined building in Oaxaca Province.

But this opportunity to report on the emotional news in Oaxaca was completely wasted. In fact, many news outlets felt it was necessary to highlight a helicopter crash that followed. It was almost as if they were thinking, "Hey, look at this! Somebody died, it was dramatic and people will click!"

I'm not saying deaths aren't important. If a disaster is significant enough to cause death, that needs to be promptly reported. What I'm saying is that I'm seeing a serious lack of empathy among readers that is honestly concerning.

There is an understanding in the articles, briefly mentioned, that there will be turmoil from the Mexican public, yet I have not seen one piece anywhere investigating this fear. Sure, big broadcasters are stretched thin as it is when it comes to foreign correspondents, and their job is mostly to report "hard" news, but at the end of the day, they publish what will get them clicks.

If people cared that Mexicans could be experiencing emotional turmoil, they'd publish that. As it is, it seems that readers care about death, physical destruction--things we can easily process. It's easy to understand that there were deaths in Mexico. It's hard to understand the fear that Mexicans must be going through after the trauma of the September earthquake. It involves emotional investment and vulnerability from the reader and it involves in-depth reporting that foreign correspondents don't have time to do right now.

I can't tell you what it means that nobody is writing on the emotional state of Mexico specifically. That requires surveys and heaps of data that I don't have the means to compile. But from my perspective, it just seems like the rest of the world can't bring themselves to empathize.