Chile Forum

Thank you everyone, and especially Charles and Zandra, for your clear, heartfelt response and strong leaping into action when it so needed.

Embracing you all and the beloved people of Chile with strength, courage and LOVE....

we found info on our family, thank you.

public thanks for Mr. Charles and his wife, the selfless love you have for Chile and the people very is comforting in these dark times, I'm watching TV Chile internacional looking at the disaster and it's a sad time for us.

Dear all, thank you for this lifeline, I am in Scotland and looking for family in Talcahuano, can anyone update me on the situation there, I have just heard that there is no electricity there, does anyone know how far the sea came in? If the phone lines are working yet, I am calling my family on skype to landlines but it keeps saying there is no network. I am looking for my sister Elena Leal Barrientos and her daughter Evelyn Leal Sandoval and her grand-daughter Florencia. Elena is from Talcahuano. Also, I have heard that there was no warning siren for the incoming Tsunami, does anyone know how long after the first quake the tsunami came in, I want to try and work out if they had enough time to get out before the sea came in. Any news would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you with all my heart. Sonia Leal.

You know I am still sad. I still want to cry. However what kind of gave me a slap of reality was when the three young women that work for us, ranging in ages from about 22 to 30 years old, came in this morning to help us. They had braved our damaged office building in the center of town to get the computers and retrieve any critical documents first thing this morning. They are our secretary, along with two junior attorneys that coordinate our day to day back-office stuff normally. One of the girls just started working for us a few weeks ago.

We had spoken to them on the cell phones, but had not seen them in person since the quake. I seen their eyes when they walked through the door. They were freaked, scared, and each seemed to have aged a year or two; but, they were there, ready to go to work. Ready to help. They worked all day. They called radio stations, police, friends of theirs, friends of friends, and anyone else to find both foreigners and Chileans.

I think by the end of the day they felt a bit better. My wife and I put on a brave face for them, barked orders as we normally do when things are hopping around the office, and mostly reassured them that we had this under control; even though I am not so sure that is the case. I believe they also felt like they were doing something. There is nothing worse than feeling helpless in a situation like this, even if you are. They were there at the table today as we held phone calls on two speaker phones next to eachother so people from outside the country could talk to people they could not reach inside the country. We did that about dozen times today, and each one of the conversations would bring tears to all of our eyes.

So, my nomination for heros of the day are our girls in the office.

Ketti wrote:Dear all, thank you for this lifeline, I am in Scotland and looking for family in Talcahuano, can anyone update me on the situation there, I have just heard that there is no electricity there, does anyone know how far the sea came in? If the phone lines are working yet, I am calling my family on skype to landlines but it keeps saying there is no network. I am looking for my sister Elena Leal Barrientos and her daughter Evelyn Leal Sandoval and her grand-daughter Florencia. Elena is from Talcahuano. Also, I have heard that there was no warning siren for the incoming Tsunami, does anyone know how long after the first quake the tsunami came in, I want to try and work out if they had enough time to get out before the sea came in. Any news would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you with all my heart. Sonia Leal.

Please post this on the Missing Persons Thread, and read the related info there also

We have some updates regarding various logistical news:

National flights will resume tomorrow. Wensday international flights will start again also out of Chile.

Parks in the 9th region are fine, there is simply no communication, lights, and so on. Anyone camping there is likly just out of touch, but is otherwise fine.

We are working some political connections to see if we can get a little more official government support for logistics in general. Honestly at this point we really only need a few odds and ends to do more. We might even figure it out on our own, if I had two seconds.

My wish list:
A 4x4 wheel drive so we can reach people and collect contact phone numbers in more remote areas, then call their families on our international line, and let them talk once we get back to town.
A generator (soooo, kicking myself for not buying one I looked at about 6 months ago). we have electricity. Just as this morning proved it is kind of flaky still.
If the budget was there, likly a sat phone and an sat uplink.

More likly we will figure it out, and I will put all of the above on my shopping list for the next disaster (hopefully it will all rust away in a garage the rest of my life).

10:01, we might be loosing our internet connection.

I need to go cook dinner, and will check back.

Big pot of Chile for Chile.

false alarm, still on the internet. Just had some short lived connection problems.

Charles,
I am currently stateside. I want to do SOMETHING! And my friends have been asking me where they can donate, etc. Do you recommend the Red Cross? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Also, if I can anything from here, just ask.

Sally

Hi from Talca,
Just got back online proper this evening. Prior communication has been only through mobile internet. Situation here is fairly dicey, some people have water, some not, some electricity, some not. I'll be making a sortie toward Constitucion in the morning with a couple of my students, looking for missing compañeros. If there's any message people want sent or people that they need to know about from that area, please let me know.

Anyone coming down to an area that has no power might think about bringing cordless tools and an INVERTER or two. These aren't so expensive anymore and run off a car battery. Getting one in the US to put out 220v is possible, I see them on E Bay all the time.
On the subject of warnings and tsunamis, what is the straight scoop on who said what and who decided not to pass the warning on? The govt is blaming the navy and vice versa. I know who I believe.