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2010-03-02
Klaas Voget reports from Chiles post-quake chaos
We are all right, in Santiago since yesterday. The earthquake was absolutely
frightening. I was alone in a house in Matanzas that is sitting on quite a
steep hill. Victor was arriving at the evening in Santiago and wanted to
come down to Matanzas the next morning. Robby Swift and his girlfriend Heidi
were in a house 300m away from me. Around 3:30 in the night i woke up, as my
bed was sliding around the room and i realized the earthquake. It took me
three seconds to have my hand on the door handle of the front door, but i had
the doors locked. The house started to shake in all directions like a bull
that just wants to throw you off. It was cracking and i heard glass
exploding in the living room. From second to second it got stronger and
stronger while i was hectically trying to stick the right key into the lock of
the shaking door in the darkness. There was a moment when i realized that
this could be the end, as a concrete wall of the house cracked and a part of
the houses structure got disconnected and was flapping and hitting the side
of the house. The power of this earthquake was just unbelievable. After a
minute i managed to unlock the door and flew out onto the road, shivering
from the adrenaline...
I ran over to Robby and Heidi who were also outside their house with the
eyes and mouth wide open. From the village down in the bay we heard people
screaming and saw cars coming up the hill. Just a minute later we saw the
wave going through the bay in the moonlight. It was a mass of whitewater
that didn't even look that scary from the hill, but a little later people
came running up the hill under shock with wet clothing that was ripped in
pieces and injuries in their faces. With the first light we saw the
destruction. There was no electricity and no reception for the cellphone...
The wave destroyed some of the buildings in the bay completely. Cars got
washed out to sea and the main road is just filled with black sand and all
kind of things from the houses. The road going north is blocked by a huge
landslide. The water went out of the bay and filled up again a few times
during the day. Also we had around 100 more or less strong aftershocks
during the next day and night making it impossible for us to rest or sleep.
Every time the houses started cracking and moving in unpredictable
directions... A lot of the people slept outside or in tents the next night.
Yesterday in the morning also the water supply broke down and we decided to
make our way to Santiago to get water, food, petrol and a power generator
for us and the people of Matanzas. Lots of the bridges are down, which
turned the drive to Santiago into a longer journey, as we couldn't take the
usual route. Santiago seems to be less affected be the earthquake, but also
Victor reported us from his scary experience in the 6th floor of a
22-stories building and a huge panic everywhere. Tomorrow we'll drive back
to Matanzas to bring water, help and with the cleanup and start fixing the
houses...
Robby's brother David has set up a donation account to help to rebuild the
infrastructure for the friendly local people of Matanzas. We hope the
windsurf world can help to give something back to the warm welcome the
windsurfers from around the world always experience by the locals here.
Here the link: http://www.justgiving.com/ChileEarthquakeResponse
We hope water and electricity will be back soon.
Best regards from Chile,
Klaas Voget
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