Chile Forum

Nice post Charles.

I have to say I have never seen such conviction and energy in Chile as of now. I have received more emails and calls from my suppliers and others than ever before in how fast we can keep business moving for them and that this is what will rebuild Chile. This started early yesterday. All told me the best way you can help us is to continue to serve our companies to the world and this will keep them focused and advancing. More than ever now they seem to have gotten an almost American boost of "get up and go" as I wholeheartedly expected that I wouldnt hear from people for weeks knowing the South American laissez-faire. I was proven wrong.
I have also entertained numerous emails for interest in partnering on projects in Chile to get involved in new business ventures that are part of the expansion of Chile.

I have to say once again, I am most impressed.......Saludos a Chile.

The thing I keep seeing in all Chileans everywhere is how the eyes of Chileans have changed. It is in the eyes of Chilean from the president of Chile, to the girls in my office, to the guy that cuts my lawn. There is something both sad and scarred, but also something more now. Not aged. I would kind of say it is somehow similar to the eyes of the old Native Americans, but very different. Chileans, young and old, rich and poor, all have that sad but determined pain in their stare.

Charles, perhaps what you see in everyone's eyes is a deepening. A sudden reordering of priorities that took place in an instant.... I've noticed this many times in the eyes of those who have gone through traumatic events. And this massive deepening will only serve the rebirth of Chile.

.... Anani

yea, tomorrow I have to devote some time to damage assessment, reorganization, taking care of our clients and so on in the morning, so I can keep this road show payed for. Our clients have been the best. We first made sure they were all accounted for, in communication, new how to contact us, and so on, and they have all been very supportive both inside and outside the country to let us do what we do best: solve problems.

Our existing clients all understand that we got some important things to take care of immediately and even are lining up to help, and I have an inbox fully of new contacts of people wanting to move to Chile or invest in Chile. I don't want to loose those, because in the weeks, months, and years to come we will personally need that money and Chile will likly need it more than us. One private individual, buying a property and retiring in some small town in Chile, can dump hundreds of thousands of dollars directly in to the pockets of communities. It is not some abstract international IMF fill the pockets of some investment firm in Santiago or worse international consultants in New York or Europe. It is money that goes in to building houses, people selling the property in the campo, housekeepers, and so on. It is direct direct investment. We want get that flowing as fast and as heavy as we can, across the entire country.

We also got to start helping the tourism industry get back on its feet in Chile. The hotel owners and our other contacts in the tourism industry here have been like our 5th column operating behind the enemy lines of the disaster finding people using their contacts. They were calling their friends that own hotels and then they were ordering their staff to help us track people down and give us anything we needed. We need to help them now recover from what was already a hard year.

That was the other thing my wife said. It is this long history of disasters in Chile like this one, that makes Chile what it is as a nation. Chile in a true phoenix that always has come out better than before from the rubble and ashes.

Yea, that earthquake earlier this evening that I mentioned a few post ago, looks like it was basically right near Temuco. It was a relatively small one, but we felt if for a good 30-40 seconds. The aftershocks we have been experiencing here have for the most part been up north, and only last a few seconds.

== PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT ==



Region: ARAUCANIA, CHILE
Geographic coordinates: 38.574S, 73.065W
Magnitude: 4.6 Mb
Depth: 64 km
Universal Time (UTC): 3 Mar 2010 01:49:08
Time near the Epicenter: 2 Mar 2010 22:49:08
Local standard time in your area: 2 Mar 2010 21:49:08

Location with respect to nearby cities:
40 km (25 miles) WNW (299 degrees) of Temuco, Chile
137 km (85 miles) N (6 degrees) of Valdivia, Chile
194 km (120 miles) S (180 degrees) of Concepcion, Chile
604 km (375 miles) SSW (200 degrees) of SANTIAGO, Chile

Greetings Charles and Zandra,

So glad to hear you are picking up the pieces, dusting off the shelves, and carrying on with living.

The fact is I am disconnected from your present experiences, being o/o/country. So thanks for

providing this important heads up for concerned families all around the world, and keep up the

exemplary course of action you are providing via AllChile.net, and your fine spencerglobal.net.

With profound appreciations,

G

Charles, it is people like you who help make Chile a wonderful place to live. You are a true Chilean in spirit and like many immigrants who came before you and later contributed to the gene pool of our country, as well as the original people who were there hundreds - if not thousands - of years before, it's in the tenacity that you show when you continue to do what you have to do.

Since last Saturday afternoon here in Australia when I first saw the headline on the internet, only 45 minutes after the quake, my head has been assimilating the reality of the events without daring to feel them. Well last night it finally hit. I saw an interview of three children form the ages of 7 to apparently 13 or 14 who were still trying to locate their parents. They were from one of the small coastal towns affected by the Tsunami but the reporter did not specify which one, so I cannot give a clue of how to help them. One of the two sisters was interviewed and she said that they couldn't find their parents; then the camera focussed on the boy - the youngest - and he cried out : "papa, ven a buscarnos".

I have three children.

I cannot emphasize enough how glad I am that you left the US to make a new home in Chile and hope that many, many more like you will do as well. I sincerely hope to meet you when I go later this year.

All the best to you and Zandra.

All the best to everyone for such a great job.

A.

O.k. 3 am, got call it quits so I can start this again in a few hours.

well my day started early at 6 am, but it was a good one. One of our old forum member Tom Hutton, that was in the worst of it, called. He just made it out to Santiago after 22 hours. We managed conference to his family. He still did not know how big the quake was. he was in complete news blackout. We are talking to a lot of people in the worst areas now that still do not know how bad the destruction is or how big the quake is, because they have had no news or communication.

When this is all over, I am fairly certain in retrospect If there is an error made, it will be in failure to get communication in to the effected areas faster to let people know help is on the way and what the situation is like. People will remain calm longer, if they know how long they have to remain calm.

By contrast, when we dealt with the Chaiten volcano distaster in the Patagonia a few years ago, that part of Chile normally has poor communication and is setup for reaching people and relaying messages even through word of mouth on horseback, radios, and so on. The people were prepared for the most part for communication breakdowns, as it was normal part of everyday life. The center of Chile was not ready for it. We were not ready for it.

Well there will be plenty of time for all that later.

admin wrote:well my day started early at 6 am, but it was a good one. One of our old forum member Tom Hutton, that was in the worst of it, called. He just made it out to Santiago after 22 hours. We managed conference to his family. He still did not know how big the quake was. he was in complete news blackout. We are talking to a lot of people in the worst areas now that still do not know how bad the destruction is or how big the quake is, because they have had no news or communication.

Great news!

hello all.....i'm baaaaaaack......i gotta say that those california quakes in the 90's were mosquito bites compared to this monster...wow...i think i was about 30 miles from the epicenter and i was in in a little wooden house on a hill on short wooden pillars...kinda like a trampoline....flexible and very bouncy. the quake shook and rumbled violently for 3 or 4 minutes and i knew we were in for more trouble with the tsunami that was on the way.

my house is about 80 mters above sea level, and i have a good view of the bay....the bay that opens to the north....where the epicenter was (i didn;t know that then...i was hoping it was further to the west or the south where dichato would be more protected...but....no...the tsunami had a clear path to the little town i adopted three months ago.

i could see the water recede in the moonlight...and then i watched the bay fill up again....and then the water receded a second time, and when it came back higher i could hear the houses being torn apart and the metal roofs being crumpled....and then....the water went WAY back...it was dawn by that time....and i thought...oh boy, here comes the big one.....and it did....the water rose at least 12 meters above normal and went way up the valley....150 meters or more, and when it came out it took 80% of the town with it.

all of the shops and restaurants along the beach, all of the businesses along the main street, the entire fishing village and most of the houses within 4 or 5 blocks of beach were ruined...splintered...relocated....it will take years to recover.

i had water and food and gas and firewood and a dry place...so i stayed put. i had text messaging capability for about a day, but then the battery died. i was a little short on gasoline, so i had to wait until gas was available for the car before i could get out. i left on tuesday morning and the bomberos were pulling dead bodies out of the rubble....on the way to santiago i passed through cauquenes and lots of little towns with major damage. lots of people living in tents....good thing the wetaher isn't too bad...yet.

ruta 5 is a mess between talca and curico...maybe further south, too, i dunno....i had to wait 5 hours to buy gas, and the traffic going in to santiago was terrible....i finally made it to my girlfriends house in puente alto. she has electricity and sporadic internet service. i need to re-organize a few things...like my life...and figure out what my next move is.

i teach night classes in concepcion, but the army has taken over and imposed a curfew that starts at 8PM....i am assuming that this means that my classes are cancelled for the time being....when things get back to semi-normal, i'll prolly go back to concepcion and rent a room.....things won;t be normal in dichato for a long, long time....sad....but....as the captain of the carabineros told me....the phoenix isn't just bird....

Cali, what a story, glad you're back-and also all the others that are safe....I can't imagine, I had only some inconvenience really. And to hear about others, just unbelievable.

Cali,

So very relieved to hear you came through as unscathed as you did; and so sorry to hear your account of Dichato.

Charles was mobilizing the troops to find you


Take care of yourself - glad you returned to 'us' so quickly!