Chile Forum

They are officially saying now on the news to not drink the water.

There is big concern about the animals, especially after last years drought. They are expecting the ranchers in the area to suffer wide spread death of animals from lack of food.

I would suspect that there will also be issues of being able to sell the animals.

The entire region is about to have a very hard time. Agriculture and tourism are about to take major hits, and those are basically the only industries in the area.

We filled up some water bottles earlier in the day - it looks and smells fine. Water is off now. Does anyone know if my filled bottles might be safe. Cause if not, rats, we'll have to drink wine!

if you can drink Cristal beer, the water is likely fine by comparison.

tvn.cl has live news feed at 9 pm local time, and say they will have a special report.

http://www.patagoniatimes.cl/content/view/485/1/

It looks like Chaiten is fairly well cut off. They can not drive out, fly out, and they do not have sufficient navy vessels on scean yet to evacuate the town. We hear that more are on their way.

live feeds from the airport meteorological camera in Futa, and other cities in the area.

http://www.tiempodelsur.cl/camaras.html

They are considering at this point evacuating Chaiten to Futa. They are sending heavy machinery by boat to help with opening the roads.

another photo gallery
http://megagalerias.terra.cl/galerias/i ... eria=30716

Vicky,
Hope ur taking all the health and safety precautions such as wearing a mask so u don't breath in toxic particles causing respiratory problems later on.. also look after your eyes and these particles can also irritate them.. stay in doors as much as possible.. and avoid driving anywhere if visibility is bad and i would imagine roads may be slippery.. stay safe..

Hey Tony,

Thanks. We are staying inside. Looking out the window, it looks beautiful, like a first soft snowfall. Futa is calm, and quiet. It doesn't appear they are evacuating...where the hell would they evacuate us too? And how? Anyway, all is fine so far, except I don't have enough beer to last for a few days.

Vicki

Vicki and Greg Lansen wrote: I don't have enough beer to last for a few days.

Sounds like its SITUATION CRITICAL!..
Jokes aside.. its good to hear u guys are good.

Just bundled up and went for some "supplies". There are some people out looking around, the hospital is giving away masks, but other than that, no panic. Just grave, grave concerns about the animals. People are almost in tears about it. The meat market is waiting for several animals to butcher this afternoon, don't know if it's because of this situation, or if they were already expecting them.

Spoke to an official at the water department who said Chaiten was evacuated to Puerto Montt. Keep in mind, my Spanish is awful, so he might have said they were "going to" evacuate to Puerto Montt. Store are open, and shelves are full - so far.

Vicki