Forgive me the big use of band width, I only have moments that I can be online, if at all.

Feb. 26 Earthquake Update from Pucón, Chile March 1, 2010

I'm visiting in the southern part of Chile with a friend. We are fine.
The after shocks have been small ones, just enough to keep us alert and prepared to respond quickly. We are 180 miles south of the epicenter
of Concepción where it was 8.8 and all the looting is going on. I have friends who live in Concepcion that I have not been able to locate yet. That will be on my agenda as long as I'm here. The girl who was named after me by her parents when I lived here are living in Concepción.

It was plenty strong where we are, throwing us out of bed and tossing us about
while the building rocked and rocked with the curtains flying like we were in a wind storm and the wall pictures flapping like bird wings. We could feel the whole building moving under us, back and forth, not jerky or sharp, just strong
rocking and rolling. Thankfully this hotel is perched on a solid bed of lava rock. And thankfully we are on the ground floor with no more floors above us. There is a seismologist staying at this hotel in Pucón and said that his instruments registered an 8.7 in the volcano just behind us.

As soon as we got tossed out of bed at 3:40 a.m., we turned the lights on, only to have them go off while we groped and stumbled or way towards the door to stand in the door frame. It was too far to hope to make it out of the hotel or even to the end of the hall which was lined with glass, the lights started to blink on and off, making it seem surreal as we kept our backs to the hall windows and braced against the door frame hoping the building wouldn't slide down the hillside into the lake. While we half stood, wobbling, I remember saying WOAAAH, a couple of times in amazement at the force. It was certainly a scary moment, but didn't seem as violent as others that I have been in when I lived in Santa Fe, Chile.

We were on back up generator until today, so it wasn't so bad for us. In fact, the owner (a friend of ours) is without power and water at her house, so comes to the hotel to shower. Our power is back on now and it seems that we are getting intermitent internet connection if we stand in the right place and hold our mouth just right. So, here's hoping that this goes through.

Our flight north to Viña del Mar has been cancelled, but we are in the process of rescheduling and hopefully can leave in a couple of days.

That's it from the far south.

BeaSong~

Wow, BeaSong, glad you're OK. Scary stuff. Take care and safe journey home when you're able.

So glad to hear from you. I had just posted in the diner a little while ago about you. You have great timing.

I am so happy to hear you and your friend are okay.

Wow, that's quite an experience, BeaSong! Glad you and your friend are okay!!!

Hope you stay safe on your trip home!

Wow Beasong so glad you are all OK!!! Take care and hope things stop rocking soon!


Nan

So glad you are ok!

Have a safe trip home beasong.

omg hope you are well and everyone is doing good, I just saw the video camera from Haiti from my cleanning girl and oh my goodness the damage and when she told me about the people I started to cry she wept too Im so sorry to hear all this bad news!!!! I will Pray for your Safe home Bea

Thanks, Beasong

For letting us know your Ok...Thanks, Ana for posting in the diner...

<Prayers> for a safe return

Fantastic first person account of the earthquake. Thanks BeaSong, but sorry you had to be IN it to be able to give us all such a horrifying account. I'm so glad you are all OK and hope you find your friends unharmed. Wow.

Take care and thank you for updating us.

for the update BeaSong. I'm glad you are ok. Stay well and get home safe.

Prayers for you and your friends to stay safe. Safe trip home. Prayers too for all who are there and involved in this catastrophe. Bless you all
Love, Betty Lou

Beasong, I'm so glad you and your friend are OK. I hope you can find those you are looking for. Prayers on the way.

Thanks Beasong for letting us know. I pray that you and your friends will make it home safely.

Midgie

Thanks for checking in and letting us know. Glad you made it safely through the earthquake. Safe traveling!!!!

What a story and thank you so much for sharing this eye-witness account. I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck to think one of our own GB'ers was in such danger. I am so glad you are alright!! Take care.

So pleased to hear you and your friend are safe, BeaSong !!
And I hope you find those you are trying to locate will be safe also

Bea so glad to hear you are okay. Hope you are able to get a flight home soon.

BeaSong,
So glad to hear you're okay; I hope all is also okay with your friends and you return home safely.

Thank you so much for your well wishes.
My friend's body guard is on his way from her hotel in a Jeep to drive us to Viña since our flight was cancelled with no promise of when we could leave Pucón. We will be driving through the region of the epicenter, so will be carrying our own water and food, since so much looting has depleted all hope of finding anything for a long time. We also have to carry our own gasoline. The military is there with aid, finally, thankfully. We are still in a state of shock and are feeling guilty for being so healthy and able to move about, but will find ways to help people once we get settled. Thanx again for your sweet support.

Prayers for all of you for a safe journey.

Safe travels, Beasong!! Sending a Band of Angels to keep you all safe!!


Nan

OMG! BeaSong, what an awful experience. Glad you are ok, keeping my fingers crossed that you find your friend and you get out safely. Thoughts going out to you till we hear you are safe at home.

Keeping you in our prayers BeaSong. Traveling Mercies.

Bea, will be praying here for your safe return to your friends hotel. I hope it wasn't damaged.

Ana

So glad to hear you're safe and sound! Praying for a good outcome of your trip and that you find your friends are safe also.
Andrea

Awww BeaSong. Never feel guilty about being a survivor. Just look at it as a chance to help others who were less fortunate.

BeaSong, I'm sending prayers for a safe journey.

I'm so glad you are all ok!

BeaSong,
Praying for you and your friends, and for all the folks in Chili and Haiti.
It's a scary place to be at the moment.
Charllotte

Thank you all for your kind support.
We made it through two days worth of detours, broken bridges and torn up roads to Viña and it looks like the Chileans are beginning to pull themselves up from the rubble. Many tall apartment buildings will have to be demolished. The people are pulling things out of the buildings and lowering them with ropes to salvage what they can. Relatives and neighbors are helping, as well as the military that have brought food and water. One woman has 10 families staying in tents in her back yard and is inviting more. There is a national telethon to inspire everyone to gather themselves up.

I thought about you when I saw the news today. They said there was a bad aftershock in Conception today.
I am so glad you made it safely. It is great to hear the good stories about how great folks can be. The news tends to focus on the bad.

Hugs to you,
Ana

We got that on our UK news, too, BrownEyedTigre. [Awful !!]

People there are going to need an awful lot of help for a long time to come

But I'm glad to hear you got through, BeaSong.

Take care now

Very happy to hear you are still OK and that Chile is digging out and going forward. Thanks.

There is a huge campaign going on in Chile right now with a 24 hour telethon ending soon, to raise the funds to pay for the 30,000 houses that they are building right now. They have 40 huge trucks with tons of help, all ready to roll south to distribute to the people sleeping in the streets. The attitude of help is massive and workers are everywhere, trying to clean up the mess and get to reconstruction.

Beasong so glad to hear you are safe and all is going well.

Thank you,
a quick update:Still strong after shocks, but no more damage.
We are in Viña del Mar, where several buildings are going to be demolished because of structural damage. Fortunately my friend's hotel Hotel San Martin) is not one of them. The city is turning off the water in several areas while some of this goes on and sometimes the electricity. That would include my friend's house up in the hills, so we are bathing in the hotel. We can only wonder the difficulty of things like this in the villages along the coast. This hotel employes 150 people, each of whom have been touched deeply, with family and friends directly involved with the catastrophy and thus have donated, inspired by my friend and from her own contribution, over 35 thousand dollars, which was seen on the TV telethon and is recorded on this YouTube page.
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhw4

Hi BeaSong,

I can't view the video, the link takes me to my YouTube page where I have to log in but then doesn't let me see it after I log in.

That is awesome that your friend and her employees contributed. I am sure they all have their own grief to tend to as well. I am glad to hear her hotel withstood the quake.

Hugs and stay safe,
Ana

BeaSong, so glad you are doing ok. Will you be able to get a flight home when you are ready to come?

Ooops, sorry about the link. I'll have to see what I can do about that.
Yes, I got a flight out last night, no problem.
Because of all the media coverage and military mix ups on tsunami alerts, the aftershocks have many people scared more than ever. It will be a while before things calm down. Electricity and water supplies are being slowly restored.
But, I'm home, back on the farm, taking care of the goats. Thanx for all of your concern. It is greatly appreciated.

Glad you are safely home, BeaSong

Home safe. Happy to hear it!

Welcome home, I'm glad you got back safely.

Bea so glad to hear you are home safe.

BeaSong, so glad you are home safe and sound.

"There's no place like home."

Welcome back home BeaSong. That is one experience you won't forget for a long time.

Hugs,

Bets