Chile Forum

I am with you vicki. The volcano will pass, the crisis will pass, the road will pass, the dams will pass, and Futa will still be there.

We like to complain all the way around on the forum about the bureaucracy in Chile. This is one instance where it will likely work in the favor of Futa. There will be a lot of talking, for many more years to come I believe.

I am sure now there will be a big push for the road. The problem with that road is, as I understand where they where proposing to put it, you likely would not be able to use it in this crisis anyway. We are talking about a little dirt road at best, not the autobahn. The one between Futa and Chaiten is nearly impassible under the current circumstances, and is almost resulting in one car accidents for every car that gets through. I just seen in the news that Chile Vision reporters got in a car accident on it.

So, it will happen.

Speaking of the wild boar. Every rancher in the area will tell you that they are the brave guys that kill the boars with their hands and a machete. Ask some of the old timers. It is the dogs that do all the work. The dogs that do the hunting in the campo, all have battle scars.

I was talking to this rancher one time that was going on and on about how he jumped on the back of the wild boar, and his dog was laying behind him rolling on his back and showing us a fresh scar on his belly and wagging his tail. Like the dog was trying to tell us who really killed the boar, and making fun of his master's mighty hunter story. Come on. When they hunt boar with guns and compound bows in other parts of the World, they have to use dogs to corner them so they can even have a chance of getting a shot in. No one is going with in 20 yards of a pissed off wild boar. They are one of the most dangerous animals in the World.

You know what Futa needs, or will need sooner rather than later? Shop vacs. A lot of them. Industrial wet / dry vac with a motor that sounds like a jet plane starting up, could pick up rocks, ash, mud, small children and animals type of power. Nothing else is going to get that dust out of the cracks in Futa.

Like these sold at sodimac:
http://www.sodimac.cl/webapp/commerce/c ... domesticos
http://www.sodimac.cl/webapp/commerce/c ... domesticos

I just bought one of these for my house (the toy vacuums kept dying every year).
http://www.sodimac.cl/webapp/commerce/c ... domesticos

It is so noisy it comes with a muffler.

As soon as we figure out how to get things shipped down there (our normal shipping line have been interrupted), I think I might take up a collection plate for this. I am sure there will be a lot of other things people will need in the area, but this is something that would be of practical help. Even just a couple that could be passed around town and help in the cleanup effort would work.

Vickie,
Excellent photo's-wow. It is helpful to see what the area is like w/the ash, etc. Compile & sell for donations for relief?
Do you have this website?
http://volcanism.wordpress.com/?s=chait ... tton=go%21

If a neuee ardent hits, it's not good. I don't read where any geological survery is watching for a dome growing on the volcano. Wondering if any planes can fly w/in site & take fotos. I hope your water situation improves. All that did not evacuate are incredibly hardy.
Volcanic ash: possibly for ceramic glaze. You need to experiment.
Keep us posted. Blessings, JT

In a previous post I said Futa had water. Let me clarify. Drinking water is available...a water truck makes the rounds a couple times a day for people to fill containers. City water was cut off, so there was no water in the pipes for washing dishes or flushing toilet. The folks here protested on Monday and on Tuesday afternoon, we got water! Man, I needed that shower. I also saw a funny sign...FUTALEUFU - CAPITAL DE PALENA!

So we have had two days of steady drizzle mixed with some intermittent hard rains. Driving is extremely dangerous. The roads in Futa have not been cleared, it's a slushy, sluggy mess. Early in the day a cattle drive came down the street and were put in the corral at the rodeo area by Lago Espejo. A semi arrived with hay. I spoke to the driver and he told me they had come from Osorno, gone by ship from Puerto Montt to Puerto Cisnes, then up through Palena to get here. 30 hours they'd been traveling. The "cowboys" are holed up with the cattle next door (there is shelter for them and their dogs). Sounds like a stockyard!

I made my chicken feeding rounds around two in the afternoon and found one bird mired up to it's wings in a slurry hole. I expect this may be a problem for many animals in the days to come. I'm wondering about the little chicks, should I be giving them finer ground corn? The geese are happy and greedy. They actually HISS! I never knew that. I'm thinking now that I've gotten up close that they are aggressive buggers. I have noticed an absence of cats these days, not a good thing. I put some food under the house next door where I usually see five or six, but no sign of them now. Found two dead mice in the chicken coup out back of the neighbors.

I've added a couple of new photos from yesterday.

Jill Tipton, great site about the volcano.

Morning update from our end:

-- Government announced a one month payment for rent and living expenses to those that are displaced by the volcano. Futa and Chaiten are included. They say they will reassess the situation in a month for more permanent aid to the families. Each family gets 500,000 CPL to rent an apartment, cabin, or whatever for the month. We are trying to get our hands on the official document, as there was some conflicting info in the news reports. The video we seen of the people watching was a fairly mixed review. There are a lot of people in Chaiten and Futa that lost a lot more than their house.

--- Last night there was reports of collapse of the ash cloud coming out of the volcano. Some news sources described it as partial, some as complete.

--- Rains are on the way. I believe 155 mm is expected. Flooding has occurred on the Blanco already, effecting some houses in Chaiten. Winds have shifted or will shift again more south / south east.

-- 100 animals where rescued from Chaiten and sent to Santa Lucia. The military was taking care of them.

-- This is being described as the most challenging disaster to ever his Chile by many government officials. Chile has had bigger disasters, but they where typically over in a few mins or hours. This one will not quit, so no one can really plan for it.

-- Palena we understand is getting a cell tower now. It seems the preference at the moment is to make Palena the new capital. From the sounds of it, not even the people there want it because of the lack of infrastructure.

more later

We have comments from Tompkins in the L.A. times about the road and the volcano.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza ... ins-t.html

I think he is right. A super ferry would be more realistic for the entire Patagonia, and something that could be done right now. Right now they have some of the slowest windup toys as a ferry system. There are plenty of parts of the world that do just fine cut off from the mainland with good ferry systems. With or without the road project, it is something that needs to be done in the mean time.

The current ferries hold about 12 cars and trucks, and take over 12-14 hours to do runs, and are broken down for months at a time cutting off the entire region from supplies. None are passenger ferries.

The road through Pumalin will be more of a financial dog than the transantiago fiasco. The estimates are over 60 bridges will need to be built, not to mention cutting through mountain after mountain. All that and you will be lucky to get much more than a very narrow glorified dirt road when it is done for maintaining power lines.

The dirty secret that even most Chileans don't know is that the road that is there now is just dirt only a few km south of Puerto Montt, and includes a year around ferry hop already before you even get to the end where they are proposing the road through Pumalin. In fact, the road is hardly adequate to carry heavy machinery or the buses and trucks that run on it now.

The next real paved highway is like 300-400 km south on the Austral highway near Puerto Aysen (yes there is like 15 kms near Chaiten that was never completed). So, they have not even finished the roads that have nothing to do with Pumalin.

We will all most likely be long dead before that road is completed, no matter how much money you throw at it and if Tompkins was willing to donate his land to the project. It is in just practical terms almost like Chile deciding to build the English channel tunnel.

It seems like a good idea on the map. You need to go see the land they are talking about to appreciate how this is a none project. Started right now with unlimited resources, no opposition, that road is at least 10 years to ruff cut status under the best circumstances. More likly 20 years before it is something adequate to evacuate or even support the southern part of the Patagonia's regular needs. It would not have helped Futa or points south of Chaiten in this situation.

An even better, and more practical solution to all of this ready right now is to negotiate a free trade corridor through Argentina. This is one hefty document and some signatures away from solving everyone's problem. They have the highway already (could use some patching though), that spans the length of Southern Chile.

Well, I still do not buy the road as a solution to Patagonia's problems in spite of the volcano. As for all the people screaming that Chile needs the dams, here is where that electricity is going:
From CNN money today:
Chile, Argentina Reach Agreement On Salta Power Plant Output
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct ... wDT9-VZs4g

current reports coming in are that Chaiten is nearly completely flooded with volcanic ash swept down the rio blanco and yelcho. We are trying to get more info.

post script Charles: The ferry from Quellon takes 5 hours to the mainland.

Vicki

yea, the ferry to quellon only runs a couple times a week. Even at that, you still have to drive goods from Puerto Montt, down Chiloe. It would have helped if that had been a daily ferry. A fast large ferry, would cut that run from Chaiten to Chiloe down to a couple hours. Something like the big ferries that run across the English channel. The government just never put any effort in to implementing a proper ferry system.

True Charles, I forgot about that. And, while they say they run a couple of times a week, that's not always the case. It's a brutal looking ferry also!

Vicki

Approximately 5:30 pm in Futa, six cattle-trucks struck a resounding protest around the Plaza, still ongoing. Trucks from Palena, La Junta, and Futa had hoped to transport local livestock out of the area but were denied for lack of proper paperwork and documents. Should be on the news tonight. The town square was blocked by the trucks, Carabinero vehicles and an Army truck, a large grader and local folks in pickup trucks. Gave the old horns a workout. I look forward to hearing how it worked out. The rain is ceaseless, and has been all day.

And so it goes from Futa.

Could you clarify this? Was the police and army protesting with them?

Interesting food for thought. After everything I read here about Chile, my immediated thoughts about a ferry are "private" vs. "Public". Boats cost a fortune to buy, run and maintain and they have to charge accordingly (if private), which often means transportation costs, make GOODS too expensive for the general populace. So a public ferry subsidised by the government may be the solutiion, unless it is then competeing with some private entrepeneur who haS already invested some huge amount and the government would now be putting that company out of business.
My observation here in the Caribbean, where ferries are our lifeblood, is the private ferries are better maintained and last decades ,but the government Ferry is always broken because the crew are government employees who have job security and do NOTHING about mainteneance, and the boats need frequent replacement (5years) . Here our 18 mile run, passenger public ferry charges $2.00 per person (half that for students and seniors) but are unreliable due to maintenance issues and in the Virgin Islands a similar run between the British and American Virgin islands cost $40.00 on the privately owned boats. That is quite a difference especially when you consider the cost for a family to travel. Here we need to travel for medical care, shopping etc.I'm sure the folk in the south have similar needs.

The private ferries are government subsidized, just not sufficiently to be profitable I believe is the problem or at least they are not putting the money in to running new ferries in those areas. They are government concessions. There are better ferries running from the mainland to Chiloe. Which by the way, it was the president who killed the money to built the bridge across to Chiloe when she came in to office. That would have at least freed up about a dozen good size ferries for other parts of Southern Chile, all things being equal.

I think this is another case of safe promise for the president to make because she will not be in office. That road is just a campaign promise.

here you go, problem solved:
http://www.shiptraders.com/index.php?a=5&b=425

Chile can have a big 200 car ferry in operation to the patagonia by next week for around 10 million US and change. Buy two, and get a crew for free. They likely just spent that on military ships to evacuate Chaiten.

They could have nearly moved the entire town of Chaiten on to a large ferry in one shot. I don't think there are even 200 cars in Chaiten.

The Chilean government has tasked 100 million US just to start the road through Pumalin. That is just the initial study it, expropriate the land, and I don't believe it includes even firing up a bulldozer (if it does, the president is smoking something ).