Temuco

I have a lot of friends in Chile and have been getting reports from Santiago to Patagonia regarding damage from the massive 8.8 earthquake that hit central Chile last Saturday. Two good friends, Robert and Killy Stanton, live within the shadow of three volcanos in Temuco which is 433 miles south of Santiago. It’s a gorgeous area, known as the gateway to Chile’s Lake District with its forests of alerce, a sequoia-like giant that can live for 3,000 years. But Temuco was also only 160 miles from the quake’s epicenter—way too close for comfort as Killy reported to me in this e-mail sent shortly after the quake:

The Stanton family in Temuco, Chile.

I must say it was one of the most frightening nights of my life as I was alone here on the farm taking care of my parents (as Robert was in Santiago meeting Matthew, who had just returned from Kenya), when the earthquake struck at 0345H.  The house shook so violently and great chunks of masonry came falling down, glass was flying everywhere and everything was shattering all around me and I could hardly stand up, as I ran out of the house round to the guest wing where my parents live, and when I got to my mother she was so terrified she could hardly breathe, she had actually been thrown out of her bed!  Of course just being the two of us we couldn’t move my father who is an invalid, and was in the room next to hers, but amazingly enough he didn’t even wake up!!

Once the quaking stopped, all I could hope was that we had been in the epicentre and that Robert and the boys in Santiago were all right.  As we all know now, it was in fact Concepcion and Santiago felt it as strongly as we in Temuco did.  Robert and Matthew were in an apartment on the 19th floor which swayed like a willow tree and creaked and groaned, but they managed to get out down the stairs, rescuing a little girl on the way whose parents had left her alone that night to go to a party!  William was at work in his office finishing up a project (at 345am!!!!!) and all alone on the 16th floor with furniture and water cannisters flying around, but he found his way in the dark down 16 flights of stairs as there were no emergency lights!!

We were without water and electricity until just a few hours ago, and some of our “aftershocks” have measured 7 on the richter scale, so those are pretty scary too, but we have to get used to it, as they say that we might have tremors for up to a year.  Meanwhile chaos is reigning everywhere.  The airport is closed, Robert and Matthew can’t get back to Temuco as the roads are chaotic and dangerous and Lawrence is stuck in Lima.  In Temuco there is no petrol at the service centres, the shopping mall has been closed for 3 weeks for repairs and all the other supermarkets are running out of supplies, with people getting aggressive and threatening violence towards the staff.  I have stayed away as we have farm produce, potatoes, apples and I have stuff in the freezer for a couple of weeks,and I only have myself and my parents to feed, but it is not much fun!  I would love to have Robert and Matthew home and Lawrence back in Santiago with William, but I will have to be calm and patient!!

Take care and all the best,

Killy Stanton

And from Brian Pearson, an American ex-pat who has lived in Chile for some 7 years now and runs a tourism company out of Santiago called Santiago Adventures: