Chile Forum

It appears the main problem is NONE of the cell companies have redundant power to their cell towers, the grid dies and no cell phones. The lack of cell service has shocked everyone, they didn’t realize how dependent they are on it. Many don’t realize they have internet as they don’t have power for a home computer. I just heard from Los Dominicos they never lost power in some houses and little or no damage in anyone’s house outside of my glass wall

My son is a volunteer Fireman, he is at his hall on Tobalaba, they evacuated the building, its band new and has no damage, but its protocol to get everything out, as of 11:00 am they have had 14 rescue calls all without mortality. They are using Skype and their internet as their main communication (its how he called me) outside of the emergency radio net which coordinates the emergency services.

Feed back so far from friends and family in the Conc. area has been positive in so much that so far everyone contacted is OK. Maybe at least a dozen people.......Bio Bio bridges have colapsed I hear. (still not able to reach my family in San pedro though but starting to feel less anxious).

Yikes, had a hair raising nude run at 3:30 am this morning (Vitacura, Santiago) to get the children out of the house. Our pool water was sloshing around and crockery and glassware rattling. It felt like running on a ship in a storm, the whole house was shaking and swaying. We were truly afraid and since we had no power or comms for hours, we were not sure what was happening.

The aftershocks were pretty traumatic, as we didn't know if there was more big ones to come and our eldest was pretty shook up.

I'm pleased to say that we have found all our friends safe and uninjured all around Santiago, with the worst report being minor structural damage to apartments.

Our nana is unfortunately still waiting to hear from her family in Angol, where comms are still down.

Some of our friends in Las Condes were still without power around 11 this morning when they came to our place for showers, coffee and lunch.

OUr thoughts are with all those who lost family and friends and who are still waiting for news.

Prayers ascend on behalf of all of you in Chile.
Stay safe and God's Peace.

Google has a person finder now http://chilepersonfinder.appspot.com/
Not sure exactly how it works, but it can't hurt to post it: hopefully it will come in handy for some of you still looking.

All in Valdivia seems to be ok.The electric was cut off a couple of times but no major damage.I live in the country on the outskirt north of the city.This is an experience hard to forget, however I have been preparing mentally for a situation such as this one, not to panic, have flashlights near by etc but last nite when it happened.....OMG!!! my ass was outside before my feet!!!! I felt that I was on a boat and the roching chairs on the porch were rocking on their own soooooo hard that I thought they were going fall off! And the house shook and rattled beyond belief!!!! I had to hold on to the car to avoid falling! But we are ok.Thank you my dear Lord for watching over us!
We finally were able to connect after countless tries...I just felt another shake

nwdiver wrote:It appears the main problem is NONE of the cell companies have redundant power to their cell towers, the grid dies and no cell phones. The lack of cell service has shocked everyone, they didn’t realize how dependent they are on it.

Ericsson's radio base stations include a battery backup, and I've seen some configurations with solar panels. While I don't know the exact spec of these units, it seems like some of them are capable of supplying power for several days. If it's really the case that the base stations were without power then someone completely mis-specified the mobile networks.

I was thinking more in terms of mis-aligned microwave links which would definitely happen in a quake like this, but that wouldn't affect the whole network. I think Subtel will be asking some pointed questions after this...

We are very worried and I am trying to find out how I can contact Colbun Chile so we can make sure my dad Daniel Hernandez is ok. We are scared for family and friends. Does any one know of any other websites.
Estamos preocupados por nuestro papa Daniel Hernandez y nuestros amigos en Colbun Chile. Tratamos de llamar. Suenan los telefonos pero nadie contesta.
Habran otras paginas donde podamos adquirir mas informasion sobre Colbun Chile?

Well, here in El Tabo, region V it was an interesting morning. No tourists today! We should do this more often...

La Tercera - (Santiago Newspaper) has been on the net throughout the quake. It appears to be accurate. It's on the net as latercera plus you know what!
I just recieved an email and a Facebook post from Santiago, but I can't reach them by phone or Skype yet. 8pm EST.

Hey MickieO, I'm next to you in El Quisco and have to agree. We went down the hill to stock up on water and whatnot and our little town felt almost normal. Well, aside from the giant line up at the gas station and the overflowing bus terminal. Has anyone heard from eeuunikkeiexpat? He's in our area too I think.

Do you have water in El Tabo? Ours went out about an hour after the lights came back on.

Still waiting to find out about family in Curico and Molina but realize that won't happen until electricity and phone service is restore. I'm most worried about several who live in old adobe structures. I read that several buildings in Curico had collapsed completely.

Has anyone heard from Cal_Chile48? His place is very near the epicenter. Glad that he had the foresight to buy above tsunami level.

BTW, Chilean government representatives are stating on all the US national news shows that Chile is adequately prepared to deal with the situation and that no aid from foreign governments is needed at this time.