Chile Forum

I have also kind of wondered why Tompkins has never tried it. His yearly legal bill for fighting the government is likely more than one of those ferries.

In other news, the goverment has announced an extension of a ban on a return of people to Chaiten for 3 months because of the danger.

This kind of goes against what was announced yesterday regarding the payments. They government said it would reassess the situation in one month, in terms of providing long-term relief aid to those displaced. They know that no one will be going back for at least 3 months, but they are not going to decide anything for a month in terms of assistance to the people?

We have lost contact with Futa. All phones are down.

We can not reach anyone in futa by cell or phone line. Anyone that has been in contact please PM us ASAP.

Anyone able to make contact with Futa or the area please contact us by email, PM, or call us ASAP!!!!!!!!!

What we know now from the news is that:

Chaiten is 90% under water.

the area outside futa las escalas near the Futa river has been cut off by a land slide.

We have no other information at this time.

Hopefully this is just over reaction.

We just made contact with Futa, and talked to vicki and greg. Their phone service has been out for the last few hours to Futa. Everyone is fine.

It appears phone, cell, and internet service was out for about 4 hours, from about 7 pm to about 10 pm.

Our suspicion is that it is a Chaiten problem. All the communication service for the area goes through Chaiten. Chaiten is flooded, and the road between santa lucia and Chaiten is cut. Thus, Futa's communication is going in and out.

I have to admit after watching the 9 pm news and picking up the phone and getting a 'number does not exit' type automated call on all lines in to Futa, our hearts stopped tonight. We honestly thought Futa was gone.

Obviously from the amount of attention this thread had gotten from me, you have all started to understand how important Futa is to us personally; however, I do not believe I have fully explained how close we are to this place.

I know our members that have been around for a while know that a few months ago we took a vacation to Futa. The reason we took that vacation was because my father died. I was very very close to my father as the youngest in the family. When my father died this year and all my brothers and sister where at his funeral in the United States, I felt the incredible urge to go to Futaleufe. Not the States, but Futa.

Once I knew my father was dead, that is where I felt I needed to go even though my father had never been there. My father and I had spent our time together for the most part white water rafting, fishing, and doing other outdoors stuff together. Futa was the place that I felt closes to him because it is the ultimate paradise of those things. That week, even being completely new to fly fishing, I caught my first trout on a fly and thought of my father the whole time.

About 3 or 4 pages back I talked about how the good people of Futa took care of us when we were just getting our business started. It was the kind of place we could make mistakes, and good honest people would forgive us for it and protect us and our clients.

I don't think I have mentioned it here, but there is not a single private practicing attorney in Palena. My wife is it. Before the volcano there was only like three or four people with law degrees in the entire region, and they all worked for the government and where assigned there (e.g. prosecutors, judges).

When two years ago we rented a little cabin in central Futa for the summer, teenage girls would come up and want to talk to my wife because she was the first attorney they had ever met and she was a woman. It was like meeting the first woman astronaut for them.

I know, I know, all the jokes. It was a paradise because there was no lawyers. In part it was true. People buy and sell land, get along, do everything there so honestly that lawyers were not needed. Really. There is such a place on earth. Futa.

Now, we want to return the favor. We want to protect Futa in any way we can. We are relatively young, I really don't care that it might take 10 or 20 years for the land to return, if that is how it turns out to be. I very much plan to buy some land in Futa, as I did before the volcano, at the next possible opportunity.

Most of all we are crossing our fingers that Futa will recover.

On a postive note, perhaps this is God's way of making sure Futa stays Futa. Perhaps it was in danger of loosing its most improtant asset: the people.

Yea, If the government won't call it official ( I suspect they will soon ), I will. Chaiten is gone.

Morning flood reports of over 90% of the town is under water, and the photos do not look good. The nature of the flood waters are ash flows. With the type of building materials ( lots of particle board inside and out ) and practices ( lots of gaps, low sitting foundations, and so on ) that are common to those areas, it means almost every building in town is a complete loss. I doubt that most can be dried out.

So, the volcano did not get the town directly.

The terrible things a lot of people left with very few possessions. It is a town that is flooded, and no one to try and control or save things.



Quick geography lesson about Futa.

Azul is a river, and around Futa it refers to the Valley or the sector Azul south / south east of Futa. In fact almost all parts are divided up in to sectors named after their largest body of water, with a few exceptions. To the East is Argentina. Las escalas is kind to the South East of town ( I think I got that right).