TERREMOTO (Earthquake)

Last night in Chile an 8.8 mag earthquake struck Concepción, which is about 300 miles from Santiago. I think the magnitude in Santiago was something like 7.4. I was in a dance club in Bellavista Barrio at the time with some friends. At first, I didn't realize what was happening. I thought maybe the speakers were shaking the room, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn't the case. The room started to shake violently and I slipped and fell. Luckily, the Chilean boy I had been dancing with caught me, grabbed my hand and dragged me over to an archway where we rode out the earthquake. Apparently it was 90 seconds long, but it felt more like an hour. It was absolutely terrifying, people were screaming, glass was breaking, people were throwing bottles and the building was shaking so intensely that I honestly thought it was going to collapse on us. Thank God for Chile's strict building codes.

When it ended, we all made for the exit and found the other half of our group. The three Chilean boys with us very kindly offered to walk us back to the apartment building of our friends. Hundreds of people were out in the streets. There was glass and rubble everywhere. Nobody's phones were working, and there wasn't a taxi in sight. The walk back to the building was a long one, I'm pretty sure we were lost for some of it. When we got back to the building, we found our other friend who had left us earlier and were happy to see her safe and sound. She said she had been sleeping at the time and had been thrown from her bed. Our Chilean escorts parted with us to go check on their friends and family.

After about an hour, most of our friends went upstairs to their apartment, but one girl and I were determined to get home. We spent almost four hours outside, trying to hail cabs, talking to various Chileans, trying to find buses and at about 7:30 we had a little luck. The phones were operating again and I was able to get in touch with my host family who came and picked us up. I was so happy to see them! And see that they were alright. We got back to the house around 8am where I promptly went to bed. I woke up three hours later to watch some of the news reports. The damage looks catastrophic. Luckily I was also able to call my parents before they saw anything on the news. It seems that everyone I know here is fine, just shaken up. Pun intended. I'll try to take some pictures of the damage if I get out into the city, but for now the public transportation isn't working.

Chau for now!