Chile Earthquake News...

Clive Maund
Mar 1, 2010

A hearty thank you to those of you who sent Emails enquiring about my welfare after the massive earthquake in central and southern Chile. Although I have an apartment in Providencia in Santiago, which was undamaged, I spend most of my time with my wife in the lake district in Araucaria, which is Region 9 in southern Chile. The epicenter of the magnitude 8.8 quake was just north of Chile's second city, Conception, which is about 3 hours drive NW of where we live near Villarrica, and here the magnitude of the quake is believed to have been about 7.5 - 7.8.

The quake happened at about 3.36 am on the morning of Saturday 27th, when of course most people, include ourselves, were asleep. Our bedroom is on the second floor of a large wood framed house out in the country and we were woken abruptly by the house shaking violently, which went on for 2 to 3 minutes. Things were falling down and falling over, and the old television in the bedroom crashed down from a table, but this turned out to be about the only thing we lost in the quake. When it wouldn't stop my wife ran terrified from the house, falling over repeatedly because of the movement. At first we thought the quake was due to the giant Villarrica volcano, which we live very near, getting ready to erupt, and had no idea of the scale of the disaster. The power failed immediately so it was not possible to see what had happened on television. It was only when we had the idea to switch on the car radio that we found out that it was a huge earthquake whose worst effects stretched from where we live for over 800 kms north to beyond Santiago.

In the morning we inspected the damage to our property here, which consists of 2 houses and a "party house" on an area of land, and were amazed to find that there was none, apart from the aforementioned TV and a circular swimming pool circulation system cover, which had split in two. We were very fortunate as this earthquake was violent, even here, and some people in the local town were killed where some houses collapsed, and a number important local bridges were destroyed too. There was no electricity all day Saturday but it came back on at 9.10 pm that evening when we were able to see the awesome extent of the destruction between Conception and Santiago. There was devastation in Chillan and Talca, the scenic town of Curico was largely destroyed, and coastal towns and villages near Conception were wiped out by a tsunami. There was heavy damage in Santiago where the airport remains closed and freeways have been cut due to major bridge collapses etc. The remaining tourists here for the end of the Summer formed large lines at gas stations, where rationing was imposed, and then fled north, although their journeys must have been greatly impeded by all the downed bridges on the main north - south Route 5 highway. By the end of the day there was no gas in Villarrica. Anarchy erupted in Conception and elsewhere yesterday when a combination of desperate people on the hunt for food and opportunistic thieves ransacked supermarkets and stripped them. A curfew had to be imposed last night.

We have still have enough food here for the time being, although as the transport and distribution network has been temporarily severely compromised there may be shortages soon. Fortunately we live on top of a well defended hill in the country and have a plentiful supply of fresh water.

My satellite internet connection has been knocked out as the companies' HQ facilities in Santiago were considerably damaged by the quake and in addition my parabolic antenna has probably been shaken out of alignment. I have contacted the company and been advised that it will be several days before service is restored. Fortunately I have an additional plug in telephone network internet service, which is working, although it often slow and sometimes loses the connection. So I should be able to resume work but will have difficulties to contend with - as I write the power has failed again.

Thanks you again for your mails of concern and support. Normal service will resume as soon as possible, which should be by the end of the week. Fortunately, after a quake of that magnitude, there probably won't be another one like it for at least 20 years in this area. Now we only have the volcano to worry about.

Mar 1, 2010
Clive Maund
email: support@clivemaund.com
website: www.clivemaund.com

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