"Santiago, April 01, 2014.- A powerful 8.2-magnitude earthquake has struck off the northwestern coast of Chile, setting off a small tsunami and prompting evacuations along Latin America’s Pacific coastline. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered about 100 kilometers northwest of Iquique Tuesday evening. It was followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 6.2 in magnitude. Chilean authorities said waves measuring about two meters were striking cities along the coast. Officials quickly ordered evacuations, warning that larger waves may come later. There have been no reports of deaths, injuries, or widespread damage, but Chile’s emergency office said the earthquake has caused landslides that are partially blocking some roads and highways. A tsunami alert has been issued for the entire Pacific coast of Central and South America. U.S. officials said they have found no imminent threat of a tsunami along the coasts of Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon or Washington state after the earthquake near Chile, but the danger is still under evaluation. Chile is one of the world’s most earthquake prone countries. In 2010, a 8.8-magnitude quake rocked central Chile, killing over 500 people and destroying 220,000 homes. The region hit by Tuesday’s quake had also experienced several smaller temblors in recent days, including a 6.0-magnitude earthquake on Sunday."
Yesterday was a fairly normal day to start out with. I got up at seven thirty, put on my darned tights and skirt, stepped outside into the cold and dark, stepped back inside, got in the car with my siblings five minutes before school started, got out of the car as the inspector started shutting the gate, sprinted towards the school, slipped in just in time, arrived late to buenos dias, and then headed to class. Everything continued as normal with the small exception that I had a cold and wanted nothing more than to sleep. My head hurt, I could barely breathe, my throat was sore and it hurt to swallow, I just wasn't feeling so great. I stuck through with class though and then came home for lunch, went back to school after lunch, and walked home after school ended at six with the intention of saving my English video and sleeping. Since it was a Tuesday, it was a zumba night and all the other girls were going, but I had already told them I couldn't. I just didn't feel up to it. At eight o'clock, Carlos called my dad and told him to hand the phone to me. The conversation went like this:
-¿Alo?- (me)
-Cris, ven- (Carlos)
-¿Que cosa?
-Necesitamos tu ayuda con el trabajo.
-Pero... ¿por que?
-Ven para ayudarnos.
-¿Donde estas?
-la casa de Lucho
-Ok...
-Pasa el celu a mi papa.
-Ok...
(I hand the phone to my host father. He
and Carlos talk. I go back to whatever I was doing. Several minutes
later.)
-Cristina, ¡apurate!- (my host father)
-¿Que?- (me)
-¡La taxi esta aca!
-¡¿Que?!
-Vas a la casa de Lucho para trabajar
con los chicos. La taxi sabe donde vas.
-Pero...
So when I had just wanted to sleep, I ended up in a taxi on my way to help fifteen teenagers record themselves speaking English. Turns out the taxi didn't know where I was going. We were on the right street, but he couldn't find the right house. He ended up pulling over, getting out, and asking the guy walking down the street for directions. But I got to the house eventually. When I arrived, the guys were in the bedroom playing Leage of Legends and the girls were in the living room, chilling on the couches. For the next two hours, nothing changed. At about ten-ish, Natalia started working on writing out what she was going to say (she had already written it out in class, but forgotten her notebook). A couple minutes later, Carlos came into the room to tell us there was going to be tremor (in Chile, anything under a 6 on the Richter scale is a tremor) in Puerto Natales. We turned on the news and there it was. There had been an 8.2 terremoto (earthquake) on the coast near Iquique. There was a possible tsunami warning for all of Chile. A while later, our dad called, saying that Carlos and I needed to come home immediately. Which meant that Carlos went to charge his cell phone with more minutes before we walked around waiting for a colectivo to pass us. We got home at about eleven and it had become a tsunami alert for the entire coast. Evacuations in the north were in process. Mind you, we're in the far, far, far south of Chile. But this serious of an earthquake can send tsunami waves all over the place and my town is centered at about two feet above sea level. We're luckier than Punta Arenas, though, which has the same problem, as we only have to drive for about ten minutes to reach a point where there's enough elevation that we're safe.
My mom told me to put some stuff in my backpack in case of evacuation. I dumped my notebooks out of my backpack and stuffed in my warmest and softest pajamas, spandex pants and shirt for warmth, fingerless gloves, two scarves (plus the one I wore- warmth around my neck because I'm sick, not because I'm obsessed with scarves), toothbrush, the swan pin my friends gave me for good luck, passport, and fruit snacks. Oh and the adipose stress toy my friends in the US recently sent me. (Katie- thanks for the adipose and fruit snacks. My sister and I were arguing over whose turn it was to play with the adipose during evacuation. It actually works really well for stress.)
We waited around for a while (I received some rather frantic Facebook messages from people who thought I'd been in the 8.2 terremoto) and then we all piled in the car. The alarm for evacuation hadn't been sounded, and most people were still in their houses. Outside of the little complex I live in, everything was very calm. Inside the little complex, there were soldiers pouring into the administration buildings. Lots of army men live in normal housing in Puerto Natales and were coming from those houses here for orders. My dad drove us out of the little complex (which is practically on the shore) and out of town to the bigger, farther away army complex that's not for families. We had trouble getting in because there were so many army vehicles going out. My dad left us in a cafeteria with a few other families and went off to help in town. We were there for a few hours, huddled around the heater because the room was cold. I tried very hard not to cough, but there were several times when I was coughing so much I couldn't breath. My host mother was more worried about me than a tsunami. At two in the morning, my host dad called us, the alert was over. Everyone in the army was going back to their normal business and he was coming to get us and take us home.
There isn't any school today, I'm fairly certain, or at least no one in my family went to school. (There was a very long argument in the Facebook group for my curso at two am about whether there was school or not.) I've been relegated to my bed for the day though at some point my host mom is taking me to see a friend of hers who is a doctor. My head hurts, my nose is stuffed, I've got icky stuff in my throat, and I still have a pretty bad cough, but besides that I'm perfectly fine. Puerto Natales survived the country-wide crisis without a scratch.
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