Chile Forum

Nets made it to the island.

I have photos of that and the destruction in Terua (let's see how many different ways I can spell that town).

I heard on TV the wave was 30 meters high and simply did not believe it. Had to go see for myself. It really was 30 meters high (4-5 story building high). I got photos of metal light posts snapped off like twigs, and smashed cars inside a gym. There was a house that we passed on the banks of a river 12 km from the ocean, that use to be on the coast and was lifted over at least one major bridge.

We were also told there is a couple rivers near by where the river bed has risen to a point that they no longer flow to the ocean. They had to use tractors to pull the boats that were docked in the river out to the ocean.

Finally got a second.

Nets being loaded on the plane, and some photos from the destruction in Terua.

We did a 3 hour, dirt road, tooth rattling ride in a truck to get to Terua. We were not able to hook up with our flight as our schedules got out of sink. We managed to track down another plane and pilot and for 45,000 pesos he agreed to fly the nets and lines over to Isla Mocha.

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Just another day at the office for Zandra. I have this small collection of photos of Zandra giving orders to the girls back at the office in Temuco from all kinds of strange places, because I snap them on my blackberry and email them to the girls while they are talking so they appreciate just where we are at and what we are doing. Among other things I have her on a horse on top of mountain in the Patagonia, backs of pickup trucks, in rain storms, and so on.


This photo alone explains the force of the wave. Look at the light poles in the background.


This is the school gym. I can not post it right now, but I have a photo of the inside of the gym. There are several smashed cars inside it.

You will want to click this photo to enlarge. On the left hand side in the distance you will see a cliff point in the background right in front of the coast seawall. We have multiple first person reports that the wave was as high as that mountain, and that has been confirmed by multiple geologists and other experts in Chile. It measured 30 meters, or about the same height as a 5 story building, or at least whatever the top of that cliff is. It picked up a house on the bank near there, and lifted it over a bridge, and carried it nearly 12 kilometers upstream. We passed it on the way in to town, but because we were in a moving truck could not get a photo of it. The seawall saved the town I believe by taking much of the force, but you can see by the bent light post. By the way the dirt you are looking at was the new coastal park they had just built. Not much left of it.

Click to enlarge.

Here is the photo of the cars washed through the wall and left inside the gym.

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Well, better late than never!

My son's school has finally allowed the students to hold a "Chile earthquake appeal". Considering that it's a private school, one would think they would have less bureaucracy

The event will take place in the school theatre during the lunch break next Wednesday, and yes, it is only an internal thing. Still, he has put a lot of time and effort convincing everyone - mainly the teachers, the students always go to his concerts - and he is very passionate about Chile, being himself part Chilean (and Dutch and Aussie).

The funds will deposited into whatever NGO the "fund raising committee" decide to be worthy. I will forward him some of the photos posted here by Charles and Zandra so they can use them in the powerpoint presentation n the background.

Nice to see Chile has not been forgotten.

We drove through Cauquenes yesterday on our way back from Santiago. Much of the town still has not been cleaned up. There are still big pieces of brick wall sitting in the courtyard of the municipal building, piles of rubble in the street, broken windows. There are various temporary housing structures around, but that was about the only sign we seen of any progress in the area. There was a little bit of rebuilding going on, but nothing like we have seen in other parts of Chile. We had reports that there were serious political problems with the local municipality and aid. There seems to be problems with them deploying reconstruction money also. The roads in the area also had more than a few bloopers that had yet to be repaired, including a fairly scary unmarked drop-off on one bridge. The whole road between Cauquenes and the highway (about 46 km) needs to be replaced.

Route 5 is in fairly good shape. I believe we ran in to about 6 short construction detours between Santiago and the Southern 8th region. None where much more than about 3 - 5 km long. Still I would say added about another half hour on to the trip. More annoying was encountering signs that had not been picked up for construction that was complete. So, you are always kind of wondering is it a real construction or a fake one.