Chile Forum

We would like to dedicate this thread to GENERAL discussion of the reconstruction efforts, and how everyone can help.

Please see the individual threads for concrete offers of aid and listings of what is needed and where, so we can coordinate:
List of aid and assistance needed thread:
topic3994.html
List offers of real aid and resources available:
topic3994.html

We are still early in the determining the damage, but plans are being started by the government already.

Right now, if anyone wants to help in a small way we need everyone to promote the forum and our friends at santiagoradio.cl to get the word out to facebook, twitter, where ever. Just simply a link to the missing person thread would help so that people can find us faster.

We are located in DC and can assist with the embassy in anything needing to be sent in an expedited matter. We have very strong contacts there due to the exports we do from Chile in the food industry. Our US main business is in food so we can get bulk products as we supply ingredients in bulk to manufacturers here.
As well, my family owns a real estate business and we can assist in construction equipment, etc needed in sourcing and logistics.
Also let me know if there is anything else we can send, we have much family in the worst areas so we are coordinating something now as many lost household equipment.

Sincerely,

Chris

We also have a family member that works for LAN that is stranded in Miami and she travels here weekly as an attendant, we can slip her things to take back on the flight that will get through faster and easier if anyone needs meds, etc.

I guess this would be a good place to ask. We lost our house at our farm, and two on-site employees there also lost theirs. Now we have to build 3 houses since we are responsible for their housing. My husband and I just got here in Sept to run the place so we don't even know where to start looking...... We have a place to stay here in the city but the other two families are living outside now and we want to get them shelter ASAP. We were thinking a prefab home would be the easiest, but will there be any left? ...... Any guidance is so appreciated.

Have you looked in to container homes?

Containers with some quick modification can make for cheap housing. Containers are selling for as little as $2,000. Figure modifications of another $1,000.

There are a lot of sites on the subject, including for disaster relief. Chile has a lot of containers, so does the US. Something like 80% of all cotainers are just abandon at the U.S. ports, rather than sent home.

When the time comes, this might be something we look in to again to help the people that need fast housing.

oh thank you! we had completely forgotten about that idea... actually someone brought it up to us a few weeks ago regarding something else but it could be really useful right now. thanks a bunch.

As anyone heard of voluntary cleanup efforts being organized? There's a lot of garbage and debris on the beaches for instance.

Edit1: Concon beaches were cleaned up over the weekend, impressive.

Edit2: http://ayudemoschile.wordpress.com/

emergency shelter
http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/emergency/emergency.htm
I have seen a nember of sites showing various earth bag techniques. There was at least one village built in Pakistan after their quake a few years ago. The inventor wants to keep the details secret but there are enough pictures out there that I know they place barbed wire between the layers of bags to keep them from shifting. There should be pallets of empty sandbags near the recovery teams eventually. The dirt in Chile has a lot of clay anyway so once you get the bags filled and stacked they will dry out (solidify) and you have instant adobe stacked in a way that can survive some shaking - see the cone shaped CalEarth PDF it has the essential method.

I have a farm with 8 hectares between Chillan and Conception, we don't know if our cabin survived but all my wife's family is accounted for so we are good. I am trying to get a leave of absence from my Employer AT&T to get down to help with Telecom restoration. I built about 80 cellsites in 2000 for Nortel mostly south of Santiago. Now I do Switch and Cellsite support for Ericsson systems, so I'm hoping that I can find a contact soon.
Good Luck
Mike

hi all

I'm working withe The Pulse and Santiago Radio to help keep info flowing and we are getting lots of reports of individual relief efforts - people loading up a camioneta and heading to small towns that don't seem to have yet received aid, osea because the roads are too bad for trucks, or the focus is on maintaining calm in the cities.

I would really like to hear how it is if you are amongst people doing this. I am getting conflicting reports of the safety, military checkpoints, and need and would really like to get some facts straight so all the people wanting to help are better advised.

There is also some inspiring work being done and with all the negative images we are getting in the intl news media, I'd hate for the other face to be lost under that. Can anyone help?

Terri

Thought I would post this here rather than the services offered thread because I'm not in Chile, BUT

I have a contact here who is the head of a small non-profit that mostly sets up water and irrigation systems, but is also involved in disaster relief. He doesn't have any contacts in Chile, but really wants to help out in some way (as do my wife and I, but alas geography is a problem).

I'm sure at this point in time it might be kind of difficult to make new contacts, but as the situation progresses, if anyone knows of any group (church, non-profit, community, whoever) that needs assistance now or in the future, please let me know. He is committed to doing something, whether it be helping with water systems, sending supplies, fundraising, whatever. The idea is that it would be a more targeted project, small-scale and working directly with someone in Chile. We would prefer that the money go directly to someone or a small group coordinating a project or relief effort, rather than to a large agency. Perhaps this is something best done once the government and big agencies have gotten things under control for the most part, but we'd like to put the word out there.

The organization is called Traveling Mercies
http://www.travelingmercies.org

Thanks in advance for all help!

Great. We will keep this one in mind as we are determining how to deploy these offers, and get them here.