Chile Forum

Good Day, it's May 3rd. The ash fell throughout the night, and continues today. While the ash yesterday was grayish, todays new layers appear white. The ash is avalanching off roofs, creating plumes of the nasty stuff! There isn't much more to tell, and with the additional layer of ash, we have decided not to venture into el campo. We have to conserve gasoline also. I may take my flour and yeast over to the landlords house and see if he would like to bake bread today (I have no oven here).

Vicki
(I'll be on with you in a bit Mom!)

here are some of this morning headlines and photos.

The photos and videos of the eruption are really spectacular with lighting striking all around the eruption. It is a bit demonic looking really.

http://www.chilevision.cl/home/index.ph ... Itemid=180

http://www.lun.com/

We hear that the decision to evacuate Futa may occur in the next few hours. 600 residents have left already we are told.

The president is suppose to be in the area today.

More later

We just spoke to the mayor's office in Futa. They are actively encouraging people to leave, and offering assistance to anyone that wants to leave and does not have the means.

It is not a mandatory evacuation.

This is helping take some of the stress off the local resources, especially the water.

well, just watched the news. We got to watch the president get chewed by the local residents in Chaiten telling her she has been ignoring the region for years, and now she shows up and everyone knows Chaiten. They evacuated her, and not because of the volcano.

They are starting to evacuate Futa in the morning, and they are sending 20 buses. At this point it is voluntary, but they are expecting it to become increasingly hard to get supplies now that Chaiten is cut off and no one is really sure what will happen with the volcano.

It seems the heavy rain did not really materialize today like hoped (still trying to figure out if that will be good or bad).

By the way, we talked to someone in Futa today who said they seen her plane do a fly by. Guess after Chaiten she did not want a second thrashing on the national news.

Charles, Yes, a plane made several passes over Futa today as my neighbors and I hauled out buckets and jugs to fill up with potable water. Of course she was probably checking out the rivers to dam, as opposed to being concerned about all the people and livestock. Because if she was really concerned, there would have already been truckloads of supplemental feed, tanks of gas, people food and more water trucked in via Argentina. Our water today came from several hundred kilometers south, over treacherous roads, driving on fuel that cost $5 US a gallon. People in Aisen have sent some help, and they are the people STILL waiting for help from the Seniora after the devastating earthquakes and sunami-type wave that devastated them LAST YEAR.

Anyway, no matter how long it takes, this region will get back on it's feet, probably by itself. I don't know how long it will be until we can get back and re-start what we were almost starting!

"Starstruck, moonstruck, landstruck, struck or just plain stricken - by the beauty. Screaming mountains, thorny rhubarb, snaking rivers, crashing waterfalls greet us ..."

Better get my butt busy and pack a backpack! 'Til Later!

Vicki

I should add that Futa is quiet, still quite a few people here. No one is panicking except for grave concerns over animals. Aside from that, the stores are open, hospital quiet, lights on (for most of the time). People are hauling buckets of water from Lago Espejo here by our rental cabin for use in toilets. I suspect it's easier to displace these people who have little money, and few resources, than to get water and food to them. (And we brush our hands of them as easily as volcanic ash) Easier for Chile, not for them.

grrrrrrrr

Vicki

Beating a dead horse....


It just dawned on me that the Chilean government might have been wise to ship Futa to Argentina, knowing that Futan's take care of Futans, and would/will send food, water, and other help back from Argentina, negating the need for Santiago to actually do anything but boast about the strong fortitude of it's southern citizens. Sorry, getting cynical at this time of night with my backpack packed and a shroud of ash and doom hanging over the town.

Vicki

We hear that the president is going to Futa today. Vicki here is your big chance to be a super star.

She gets this week to start sorting the mess out or at least acting like she is going to sort the mess out, and then I think we should start making a big scandal about it around the internet.

o.k. kids, looks like we are going to fire up the donation machine. It looks like the money is going to be needed sooner or later.

We just got off the phone with the ONEMI representative in Futaleufu. They are the Chilean version of FEMA (just not as useless). We requested an official bank account for donations be opened. He was going to work on getting one setup, and we will be in touch with him in a couple of hours.

As soon as we have that info, we will be posting it across all the web sites we can. If anyone out there has a web site, personal blog, or anything else that they would be willing to republish the info, or they would be willing to at least post a link to the donation site, we would appreciate it.

We have had on the shelf an incomplete project for promoting tourism in Futa at http://www.futaleufuchile.org/ with the tourism association in Futa. I think we will retool that web site as an information clearing house.

xxx