Chile Forum

I was able to get an update on san antonio via twitter feeds. Apparently there was a wave that took out about 200 houses, right in my wife's neighborhood. Still can't contact anyone there. More scared now.
For those who are looking for updates for specific areas, a search on twitter might help.

We are in Las Condes and have an apartment on the 18th floor. We had a terrifying time when the building started swaying and our patio doors were just opening and closing with each swing, I really thought the building was going to collapse. The aftershocks aren't helping either and I just keep expecting it to start all over again. I hope I never have to experience anything like this again and my thoughts are with the families who have loved ones in the worst hit areas of Chile.

Reuters article, many pic's. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61Q0S920100227

I was in my apartment alone in Santiago. I had no idea what you're meant to do in an earthquake so I just huddled in a doorway and prayed it wasn't the 'big one' that everyone keeps talking about. It was the single most terrifying moment I have ever had: I really did think the building was about to collapse. And it just kept going for over a minute. Things were falling off the shelves, art was falling from the walls and I could hear things in other parts of the apartment breaking. I hope everyone is okay and we hear from them soon.

Does anybody know of any groups that are headed to Chile as we speak? My name is Matt and I lived in Chile 10 years ago. I have many friends who live by Santiago and I cant get ahold of them. If anybody knows anything, please send me a message at
mattdoudna9@msn.com I can leave as soon as Monday for Santiago and meet anybody who wants to help me find my friends and others who are trapped in the devastation.

Checking in from Olmue. There are some fallen walls here and many things fell off walls, but most houses are small and not too much damage other than some fallen tiles and cracks. Have not heard of any casualties. The shaking was pretty sustained. Have been in 7.2 earthquake in California, which was an attention-grabber, but this was way worse in that it happened in the early morning waking us from sleep, and seemed endless. Aftershocks are very unnerving and still have us exiting buildings. Electricity and cell phones are out still, I am in an office where there is a generator. Prayers going out to everyone affected.

maxine wrote:We are in Las Condes and have an apartment on the 18th floor. We had a terrifying time when the building started swaying and our patio doors were just opening and closing with each swing, I really thought the building was going to collapse. The aftershocks aren't helping either and I just keep expecting it to start all over again. I hope I never have to experience anything like this again and my thoughts are with the families who have loved ones in the worst hit areas of Chile.

What's the damage like in Las Condes? Or what is it like in Las Condes? My ex (who is my best friend) hasn't been able to get a hold of his family in Las Condes, he's been trying to call them all day, but no luck so we're both worried about them.

Hello everyone, sorry to abandon you for the night. I woke up to find that we are also on a Tsunami warning here in Brisbane.

Australia can expect a tsunami from about 8:15 am today officials said. Seismic waves could reach the east coast of Japan around noon, the country's meteorological agency said.

http://(link cloaking)/y99uu9l

We live right "on the water" so we will be packing up and moving on a bit later to some friends' house.

Glad to hear from Charles and from mostly everyone, I think we will gradually start hearing from the members of our forum once communications are restored. I will call friends in Santiago a bit later on and post anything new.

Glasspharm, have you heard from your wife?

Stay well everyone

A.

Has anyone heard from the new Kristina and her family? She's just arrived from Finland to Concepcion and doesn't speak any Spanish. Good grief! I hope she's alright.

A.

Riyko wrote:

maxine wrote:
What's the damage like in Las Condes? Or what is it like in Las Condes? My ex (who is my best friend) hasn't been able to get a hold of his family in Las Condes, he's been trying to call them all day, but no luck so we're both worried about them.

I conversed with a person earlier this morning and that person told me that Las Condas had minimal damage so your friend should be OK.
It is impossible to get calls through from outside the country thow. Electricity etc is sparadic at best.

FrankPintor wrote:
Neither, I'm in Caracas at the moment... I get around

I was just able to talk to my family in Valdivia, they're all OK. The quake hit about 45mins after the show from Viña had finished around 3am, and was followed by a very strong aftershock. There's minor damage to houses in general (wood might resist quakes better), but the Costanera in Valdivia has a lot of cracks and apparently the pool at the casino is leaking. A lot of panic due to the power cuts and the very strong aftershock, and also because there were reports that the sea had receded... it could all have been a lot worse.

Electricity is out in a lot of places, and although the fixed phones and internet appear to be generally working, anyone with a cordless home phone won't be able to use it and people with laptops won't want to empty their batteries being connected all the time. Unfortunately mobile phone network (Entel and Movistar at least) seem to be completely out. Also, in Valdivia TelSur have a wireless phone network, this appears to be working as well. I think the major problems calling people are with access from outside the country, people within Chile seem to be able to call each other.

TVN reports a lot of damage from Concepción and Talcahuano, friends of ours from there arrived (luckily) in Valdivia last night. Their house is at least intact.

Frank

Good stuff Frank.

Hey guys, checking in from the Valparaiso Region. We' re in El Quisco (about an hour and a half from Santiago) and everything's ok here for the most part except there's no water right now. We were without electricity until about about noon today and then maybe an hour after we got electricity back, the water dried up in the taps. The phone lines are impossible right now, I have been able to get through to some of my relatives here in the country on my cell, but it works sporadically. The only success we had getting in touch with our family and friends overseas has been online using skype. We have credits so just called everyone we needed to as soon as our internet was back up, just in case it goes down again.

We had just gotten home maybe half an hour before the quake hit and were nodding off when it happened. The puppy we rescued sleeps outside and she started crying when everything started shaking. We ran to get her and our other dogs and they all huddled on the bed with us. It didn't last long, I have a feeling we slept through part of it, but there were some largish aftershocks for a while afterwards. After the worst of it, alot of people who live near the beach were evacuated up to the hillside neighborhood where we live. It was nuts. Cars everywhere at 4 am. They're saying it was around a 7 or so in this area. We're still getting quite a few aftershocks over here. The supermarkets are closed and don't know if they'll be able to open for a couple days as their systems are down, but the mom and pop shops opened up thankfully, and everyone who is still lucky enough to have running water (even if it's slowing to a drop) has been letting their neighbors fill up empty bottles and buckets, etc.

I have not heard any good reports coming from San Antonio but haven't been able to verify much. They rerouted traffic away from that area and I'd heard a bridge or two was out. The buses finally started running a couple hours ago (the bus terminal is packed of course) and I have not seen any buses going to Santiago via San Antonio since la pista del sol is messed up. All the buses seem to be taking the route via Casablanca and I didn't even see any of the crappy little micro buses headed that way.

We're slowly, very slowly, contacting more of our relatives here as we don't always get through (I heard movistar had a couple cell towers damaged?). Anyhow, we are very lucky and grateful that we live here in this quiet seaside community where the problem of being without water for a few days is minimal in comparison to what others have lost. I know how stressful it must be for people outside of Chile trying to contact their loved ones.

If there is anyone you would like me to try and contact on your behalf, please contact me at
http://www.refinedhedonist.com/p/contact_04.html
I will do my very best to contact them for you. If there is anyone on here in Santiago or nearby, who finds themselves needing a place to stay as a result of the earthquake, I know it's a circus there right now, we are offering up our spare room if you need it.