Santiago Shakes

The last 24 hours have been the most surreal of my life. If things had gone any differently then we very easily could have been in Concepcion or the lakes region where the epicenter of the earthquake hit. But Bree got a job so we canceled our trip and decided instead we would go to the beach for the weekend. However, rather than leave for the coast last night we went to a friend's birthday party. I use the term friend loosely, we literally met this woman once and decided it would be a good time.

So here we are in Santiago (approximately 200 miles from the epicenter), rather than Valparaiso (150 miles), Concepcion (50 miles) or Valdivia (100 miles).

2:00 AM Saturday morning
Bree and I left a salsa club in the Bella Vista district of Santiago. We got home and discussed how much we love it here and what a good time we had. We are starting to meet some people and really enjoy their company. We clean up the apartment and go to bed.

Around 3:45 AM
I couldn't sleep very well and was half awake when the apartment started to shake. It started out gently at first, and then became more violent. What lasted for only a minute seemed to last for an hour. All we could hear was glass shattering and Concrete collapsing. The building was shaking violently back and forth and we were being bounced around in bed. I easily felt I could have fallen out. As the shaking increased in violence we were convinced the building was going to collapse. Then it started to die down. The earthquake continued for another minute or so in small rumbles and was accompanied but the distinct sound of concrete falling to the ground. The building continued to rock for a while.

We had no power so our apartment was dark so we stumbled to find our flashlight. From the sound of all the glass breaking we were convinced the entire apartment would be in shambles. Surprisingly nothing broke. Our fridge was open and all our food was on the ground but that was the extent of our damage. we put clothes on and ran outside with the rest of our apartment.

4:00 AM - 5:30 AM
We spent the next hour and a half outside waiting for news as to what happened. We talked to our security guard who assured us earthquakes happen all the time and we are safe. He also added that they never are so bad. A lot of people in our apartment had packed bags and took off in their cars. Some people brought out mattresses and chairs. Most just looked stunned. Nearly everyone was on the phone with relatives checking if they are okay. I overheard one person saying that Concepcion was leveled. We watched as our generators struggled to stay on and keep the emergency lights going. Eventually we got on our radio on our phone and listened to the news. From what I gathered there was a major earthquake and concepcion and the coastal regions had taken the brunt of it.

We tried to go back to sleep around 6am thinking everything was safe.

8:00 AM
The first major aftershock hits. Bree sleeps through it but I felt it pretty clearly. It was nothing like the first but still was nerve racking.

10:00 AM
The second major aftershock hits and registers a 6.8 on the Richter scale (for a scale of what this feels like, the quake in Haiti was a 7.0. Our first was an 8.8). This one woke Bree up and, for lack of better terms, scared the shit out of everyone. More sounds of glass shattering and concrete falling. At this point we got up and our power was back on. We got in touch with our families through Skype, email, and Facebook. It was now when we learned the severity of the quake. Since our area was hardly damaged we had assumed that it was just another quake in a city that is used to earthquakes.

We learned of the reports that the US was getting and made an effort to assure everyone that Santiago is fine. For the most part CNN has claimed that Santiago had a lot of damage which is false. Cities and towns south of here are destroyed and in shambles.

The next hour or so was spent reading as much news as we could and talking to as many family members as possible. We learned that Concepcion was blocked from communication and the major bridge connecting the north and south of Chile was destroyed. We can only imagine what the quake felt like south of Santiago. We are 200 miles away and terrified. Around 11 we went back to sleep.

3:00 PM
Most of the aftershocks had gotten smaller at this point. We decided it was time to explore the city and examine the damage and take pictures so we could report first hand our experiences. For the most part the city is in tact. A lot of buildings have broken windows and large chunks of concrete fell off the side of the older buildings. A lot of buildings were taped off to prevent people from getting hit by more falling chunks. For the most part though the damage was minimal. There are reports of a parking garage that collapsed in the east of Santiago in Los Condes. There are also reports of museums having significant damage.

By the time we were out in the city most of the rubble had been swept up. The most surprising thing was all of the glass in the streets. So many windows were shattered and many light posts broke apart. We met with a few people in a coffee shop who were trying to get in contact with family members. Everyone seemed okay but like the owner said, "we will rise again."

We ran into a couple of Americans who were supposed to be here for a layover but now are stuck in Santiago. They were supposed to fly to Punta Arenas to backpack around Patagonia. Instead they have to wait until the airport opens. They were talking about people in the top floors of their hotel having their beds thrown back and forth across the room during the quake. We feel lucky to have our apartment on the third floor.

There have been mixed reports from the airport about when it will open. There is significant damage to the terminals but not the runways. We have heard that the airport will open in 24 hours but we also have heard 72 hours. When more of the Santiago news stations come online we will know more.

7:00 PM
After exploring the city we decided we needed to stock up in case supplies take a while to get here. We went to the supermarket on our block and realized we should have came earlier. The grocery store was PACKED. There was no meat, no bread, very little water, and hordes of people. We filled our cart with water, frozen foods, non-perishables, snacks, and anything else we thought we would need in case for some reason things get worse. We had to wait in line for over 2 hours to check out. Since the phones are unstable only cash transactions were being accepted. That means people waited in line for 2 hours just to find out when they got there that they were out of luck.




CNN and the other major American news stations have been pretty obnoxious with their BS reporting. They recently reported that Santiago has no power, no running water, and no phones. All of which are false. They have been generalizing all of the reports that they get and stating that everything is happening in Santiago. If anyone is considering coming to Chile for relief work, please, don't come to Santiago. Go to Concepcion, San Antonio, and other coastal towns near the epicenter. They are in dire need of help. NOT Santiago. It seems to me that since there are 6 million people in Santiago, the major news networks almost want there to be a bigger disaster here.

For now we are okay. We have electricity, running water, and the best invention ever: Skype. The gas lines are shut off so we don't have hot water yet but we will soon. We still hear a lot of ambulances heading towards the south and west. If anyone wants to get in contact with us Bree's Skype is bree.simmers. We want to thank everyone for all of the emails and messages we got, we are glad that so many people care about us!