Chile Forum

Total American Bonehead Alert:For now, Elliott Yamin is OK, but if he stays in earthquake-ravaged Chile much longer, the diabetic former "American Idol" contestant


might run into some problems. On Monday evening, almost three days after a massive 8.8 quake rattled the South American country, Yamin told his Twitter followers, "amazing outpour of support out there! ... can't thank yall enuff!! ... I'm NOW DOING OK AS FAR INSULIN GOES! ... no need 2 wrry."

The tweet came after Yamin told Fox News that he was starting to worry about his supply of insulin. "I am a Type 1 diabetic and I only packed enough insulin supplies for my pump to last a couple more days," he said in one of the many interviews he's done since Saturday's massive tremor shook the country. The quake hit just hours after season five's third-place "Idol" finisher performed at a singing competition in the city of Viña del Mar, which is about 200 miles south of the epicenter in heavily damaged Concepción.

"I don't know how long we're going to be here. This country isn't very keen on insulin pumps; supplies for my pump are running low. Hospitals here are very crowded, and as you can imagine, they are dealing with bigger things."

What the Hell? 1. Why didn't this dufus not research where he could get backup supplies before he even arrived in Chile and 2. Hey DUFUS: CHILE IS NOT A 3RD WORLD COUNTRY. They have diabetics on insulin pumps too....

atlvlagt, that post actually made me snort. Not pretty.

The poor lamb was staying in the Sheraton Miramar in Vina, so I'm sure he's been well looked after. But, oh the ignorance

And the general standard of reporting seems rather shoddy:

The quake hit just hours after season five's third-place "Idol" finisher performed at a singing competition in the city of Viña del Mar, which is about 200 miles south of the epicenter...

(emphasis mine).

So Fox has moved the epicentre to about, say, La Serena?

The ignorance is good/bad.......maybe it will prevent this charming country from being overrun with ignorant dumb asses like the d list celeb above. the media here in the states is certainly contributing by making it sound like the military has taken over and the rule of law has been tossed in the trash....they keep showing one single grocery being looted over and over and one single small span of the santiago highway collapsed and portraying this an example of how the entire country is at this moment. glad my husband and i know better.

atltvlagt wrote:8) The ignorance is good/bad.......maybe it will prevent this charming country from being overrun with ignorant dumb asses like the d list celeb above. the media here in the states is certainly contributing by making it sound like the military has taken over and the rule of law has been tossed in the trash....they keep showing one single grocery being looted over and over and one single small span of the santiago highway collapsed and portraying this an example of how the entire country is at this moment. glad my husband and i know better.

I hate the US media for the reason you just described. I'm not sure anywhere else is better, I just don't have much experience with non-US media outlets.

I agree the ignorance helps, I mean who wants to welcome in & open the door to someone who thinks your home is trash! the same way they keep showing the looting is the same way they believe so-called 3rd world countries are nothing but full of starvation & beggars. I find US-Media highly subjective...on second thought I think most media is highly subjective - what sells is what gets shown. The people who know better shall still view Chile as the haven it is & the rest well....who needs them?

P.S Atltvlagt EVEN 3rd world countries have diabetics on insulin pumps. I know because I am from a 3rd world country & my mum is diabetic

mauricio wrote:This is to wish good luck to all of those people in this forum who have just moved or are about to move to Chile. This kinda of thing is par for the course and hopefully everything should be restored to normal in a few months. Do not let it discourage you from making Chile your new home!

My only consolation is that considering that magnitude of the damn thing, only 300 or so dead is not so bad! Credit should be given to the strict building codes implemented in Chile many years ago. If a quake of this magnitude had hit anywhere else in the world, the level of devastation would be much, much greater!

I am new to this forum, a Briton who has lived a few years in the the cold latitudes of Finland and a lot of years in the sub tropics of Queensland, Australia. I am toying with the idea of spending some of my pending retirement in beautiful Chile.
Here in Queensland, constructions have to follow a code which caters for cyclones, which basically means that the roof has to be secured by metal strapping or rods from Roof to foundations with walls braced for lateral strenght as well. So, out of interest, since I am capable and have built my own home, what are in the Chilean building precautions to withstand earthquakes?

The main set of antiseismic construction standards in Chile is the Nch 433 norm which has been updated several times over the last three decades and was made into law. You can buy it on the http://www.inn.cl website.

The whole west coast of the USA is about the same earthquake situation as Chile and has earthquake regulations about building. I am not going to build my own house, so I haven't looked, but suspect that there is a lot of information about building to withstand earthquakes on the web, written in English.

Here is some earthquake proofing using car tires ideas. I can not seem to find all the original articles I read on the subject of using old car tires:

Here is one that uses a bed of tires, to isolate the structure, and the performance test on a shake table:
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~jwv/pdf_ ... lation.pdf

Patent description:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/68628 ... ption.html

I am still looking for the video and photos of this technique I found before on how to make earthquake dampeners out of car tire strips:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w7n126132q114606/

It is just cutting tire treads, stacking them, and using them as earthquake dampeners. They tested to a 10.0 on a shake table test, and can be used anywhere while eliminating old tires. They could even be nailed through, and it would just add more dampening strength to them.