Chile Forum

ohh I have more than a few choice words for the U.S. embassy, but I decided that there will be plenty of time to curse them later. Just useless to outright inhibiting the search for missing people (Americans and everyone else), would more or less be their performance report at this point. We don't ask for passports, we ask for leads to find people.

I just wish they would at least go through the internet and update everyone else about who they have found, so we can all move on to other missing people. Some of their list of Americans spread around the internet are confirmed found over 24 hours ago, but there are sites still listing them as missing. To the U.S. embassy, at least cleanup your online mess you created!!!

On to more pleasant topics, aid does seem to be flowing. The security situation seems to be stabilizing now in most locations. Big big drives for donations are going on all over the country. We sent a load of blankets to the 9th region coast here today, and some contact forms for people to pass messages back.

The 8th region communication situation is still really bad. There are still a lot of missing and unaccounted for. In fact, we are discovering there are entire towns missing that aid has not reached yet and no one has checked on. There is now three bus companies that have reestablished service to Concepción, and we heard that three more were suppose to be running by Thursday. Buses are really key to Chile's transportation system and getting aid in.

The problem we are seeing coming up is limits on gas supplies. The drivers with trucks we are talking to say gas is an issue. Big trucks use lots of gas. we are seeing rationing set at 5,000 to 10,000 pesos at a time. For big anything, that is not a lot of gas.

Here's some translations from the most recent posts in the Spanish forum:

Help for animals - http://www.sach.bligoo.cl/

From FEUC - Neither Universidad Catolica nor FEUC are asking for volunteers to go to the south

1:35 - Light and telephone are back up in Portuzuelo

Information about shelters and survivors in PELLUHUE ask amarogarrido@gmail.com

TELETON is not asking for volunteers. This page is incorrect: http://tv.fedusm.cl/

There are 4,000 people offering to help on Ayudando.com. They need volunteers - comunicaciones@trabajando.com

LAN and SKY resuming flights

Much help is needed in Cauquenes, they are helpless, I talked to my friend Aquiles Gaete cell Phone 76047941. PLEASE! - from fernando paulsen

In Dichato chemical toilets and chlorine needed

Interview on TVN: Angelica
Neighbors helping each other. Help arrived but not for everyone.
Nowhere to buy goods
Hospital collapsed
There is NOTHING
WATER: People are taking contaminated water from the carampangue river
No radio, TV, or communications
THEY NEED EVERYTHING

Un Techo para Chile needs volunteers: Call 2 8387360 / 2 8387304 / 2 8387355

Does anybody knows about Buchupureo??? No news at all...

This article from the Spanish media has been the topic of conversation all day:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internac ... iint_3/Tes

.... the signs of the Chilean spirit are finally beginning to show... after a couple days of chaos, the overwhelming majority of Chileans are demonstrating that we will not allow a few to destroy what we what work so hard to built... and we will never allow ourselves to forget who we are...


Now we have to demonstrate it! ...

Well, I think I am about to start my 20th hour, on less than 3 hours sleep.

Todays big deal: aid is moving. Tom was found alive. Offers for help are increasing. Communications is still bad, but improving. My internet connection never went down once today.

The news stations are starting to take notice of the biggest mistake made in this crisis: poor communication. A reporter today live from Concepción said, "we are the largest owners of cell phones per person in Latin America, why are all our cell phone networks down".

I know why. I have said it on the forum for years. It is because foreign companies like n o k i a or whatever, drop prepackaged cell towers by helicopter in to Chile, and they lack Chilean engineers that have learned themselves how they really work. More advanced tech Education and investment is what this country needs with the next government. This is a nation full of cell towers with out battery backup system, or sufficient qualified people to fix them. This and other communication mistakes I am sure will now be national priorities like never before.

The guy that cuts my lawn came by my house today. I let him cut my lawn even though both of us knew it did not need it, and we were both very happy to do something normal. We made a half excuse about not having change for 5,000 pesos when I normally only pay 4,000, and he happily nodded at the jester and accepted.

The false alarms of Tsunami and active volcanoes seems to have increased, and the real earthquake aftershocks seem to have decreased somewhat. We still had some big ones today. Sufficient to reminds us to pay attention, because this is not over yet.

Big hats off to Dan and the crew at santiagoradio.cl and the Pulse, and sorry for the almost interview today that fell apart because more pressing crisis came up on both ends it seems. One of these days we will sit down to a good meal, a good drink, and have a good laugh.

By some miracle today sufficient new and old buisness found its way to our office ( including a few clients that were surprised to hear about the earthquake when we asked them if they knew, but hired us anyway ), that I decided not to cancel our lease on our downtown office, layoff any of our staff, or take any other drastic measures for now. My father taught me that doing the right thing, also tends to be the most profitable thing in the long-run. Contrary to popular cultural myths, we still believe that is true. We will play it by ear, but I think we will make it and still be able to keep the earthquake relief project going. I guess if not, I am just going to have all that much more time to dedicate to it.

What else is there to do? My fly fishing season was ruined long before the earthquake hit.

My cat gave up trying to get me to go to bed sometime ago. I think I will take her wise advise and get some sleep.

Cali,
I'm so relieved to hear that you survived the earthquake/tsunami! Your story is amazing! I'm very sorry that your life has been adversely impacted by these tragic events but I am confident that your demonstrated resourcefulness will enable you to put your life back together very quickly. The very best of luck to you in your future endeavours!!!

Charles,
You are an inspiration to us all!!! May your personal and business life continue to prosper!!!

i am gearing up mentally to go back to dichato. my approach is simple....make sure that i have the resources i need to function independently and do what i can to help others. i will make my house available to that end...perhaps the firemen need a place, since the fire station in dichato doesn't exist any more....i also have the idea to build a footbridge over the little creek. there's lots of scrap lumber lying around.....

i will be shopping for a small, gas-powered generator here in santiago and gathering blankets, clothes, tents, soap, shampoo, etc, for the people of dichato. the generator is basically for me to keep my cell phone charged. i guess i need to buy lots of minutes from moviestar, too.

essentially, i am preparing for a month long camping trip....that means lots of beans and rice and canned fish, and maybe, if i'm lucky, a bath once a week. good thing i'll be sleeping alone, eh?!

cali_chile48 whatever need you let us know. We got some firefighters that want to send equipment in from the States we are trying to coordinate with.

Dichato is being hailed by the media as an example of true community spirit.

This morning as I was waking up I had a thought about lessons learned. Boy has this crisis really focused me once again on what is important in the World: people. The people we love, our friends, the girls that work for us, people we work for, people that are missing and we don't even know, community, and of course Chile. The rest of it is all just crap and junk. We can always get more of it or hopefully learn to live with less of it, but the people are what is important. Perhaps small exception for my cat, that has now taken on the duty of waking us up at the first sign of even the smallest aftershocks (she still think humans are stupid for ever going in a building again).

other important lessons

don't wait for the government to come and save your ass. ALWAYS have the resources available to survive for a couple of weeks without any public services...this means keeping a stock of food, water, gasoline, firewood, etc, and tents and sleeping bags...cuz you just never know....

don't believe everything you hear on the news, or on the streets....maintain an informed, skeptical posture and trust your own eyes and ears and knowledge. there is more bad information than good information circulating in a crisis. keep yourself informed and aware. think for yourself.

it pays to maintain good relationships with neighbors, cuz they are the ones who can help you when you need it more than anyone else. maintaining good relationships with the local police is a good idea, too.

Yea, two super heroe groups in this crisis are the volunteer firefighters across Chile and the police. They did there best to hold these communities in Chile together until the national government got organized, and did a dam good job with too insufficient resources. When this is over, I hope they both get the heroes recognition they deserve and massive injections of resources so the next time they can function better.

My wife said yesterday that my instincts from my Mormon upbringing to always have at least a months worth of food and other supplies in the house saved us from needing to scramble to buy food in the first days, along with my backpacker / woodsman tendencies. There are lot of little things I wish i would have had like a generator, but I use to purposely spend weeks and months in places without things like electricity growing up, so I can live fairly happily without it. They are more things I wish I had on hand to be of help sooner, and make us able to work around problems easier. They are not life or death necessities for us, but for a little more money would have given us increased capabilities to help.

Hi all. Just checking in. Glad to hear that most have suffered little damage.

Physically, my husband and I are safe and sound, but have been forced to leave our apartment. The damage is very severe, so we have been relocated until the contractors, munincipalidad and ministerio de viviendas decide if the building is repairable or if it must be torn down and rebuilt. Luckily we have been able to salvage most of our things from the apartment. Unfortunately, in the best case scenario, repairs would take 3-6 months. Our baby is due at the end of May, so he/she will be arriving to our temporary home.

Luckily, the inmobiliaria has offered to take care of all repairs. Most of the damage was caused by poor construction. We hope to have an answer soon on what the process will be.

Take care, everyone!

Glad to hear you are safe.

That would not be the building built by Paz would it that is on the news?

If anyone has any bureaucratic snafus, insurance companies messing with you, whatever related to the crisis, call us. Our office will go slap them around, and of course under the current situation for free.

can you slap bachelet for saying that everything was under control and that the damage wasn't too bad? meanwhile, stores were being looted and burned in chillan and concepcion and several towns along the coast were destroyed and thousands of families in Biobio and Maule were living in tents and searching for lost friends and family in the rubble of their lives?