¡Terremoto!

As many of you know, there was a major earthquake in Chile at about 4 A.M. (~12 A.M. AZ time) Saturday morning. Everyone in my house and everyone I know is ok, and there was relatively little damage to our neighborhood. Everyone is asking me if it was scary, or if I'm ok or whatever, but in reality, things were relatively minor where I was; until I talked to my mother yesterday afternoon (when the landlines came back), I didn't even think that any of you guys in the states would've heard about it. The truth is that much of where I am is running relatively normally; yeah, we don't have power, and the metro, supermarkets, airport, and some streets are shut down, but other than that, things are pretty normal. Gracias a Dios, everyone we know is ok. Yesterday morning I wrote a little bit about what happened, so I'll post that here. As you'll see, I really didn't think that the quake was a big deal (we didn't have radio, telephone, TV, news, anything, so we didn't hear any of the statistics or death tolls that we're now hearing), not until yesterday afternoon and today, anyways.

From yesterday morning (~11 A.M. Santiago time):
“This morning we had un terremoto (earthquake). At about 4 A.M. Santiago time (~12 AM Arizona time), I woke up and felt like I was experiencing extreme... I don’t know, vertigo? The feeling you feel when you get off a boat or a a plane but you still feel like you’re on it. I was only semi-conscious at the time (I was sleeping when it started), so I didn’t really realize what was going on, but Carlos and Kelly came running into my room and pulled me under the doorway. Afterward it was just the sound of car alarms going off, dogs barking, and, later, the sound of the neighbors coming out of their houses, checking up on and talking with each other. We didn’t have power, so the only news we could get was from the neighbors who had a battery-powered radio. The quake was about an 8 on the Richter Scale, so they say, but we haven’t had radio or electricity since so I really don’t have any details.

It was really strange. I had never experienced a strong earthquake before, only the aftershocks that sometimes reach us from LA or wherever, so when I woke up, I didn’t really think to react or move. I just kind of laid in bed, thinking that everything was wiggling and that it had to be an earthquake (what else would it be?) and “oh, how strange”, but I really wasn’t awake yet and I didn’t think to move. The sensation was really different than what I had expected; I kind of expected it to be more abrupt, like when you put things in a box and shake it, but it wasn’t. It felt like being on a boat; it like the entire house had been put on a boat on choppy water.  It lasted longer than I expected, too; maybe it was just in my head, but I felt like we were under that doorway for a long time, like it would maybe never stop. And it was interesting: I wasn’t scared, mentally; I didn’t really feel any fear in my head. My body knew it was scared before my head did: my heart knew to beat faster and my lungs to breathe deeper before my head knew to feel fear. Very interesting. I’m sure tiredness had a great deal to do with it.

Anyways, everyone in the house and all the family members are fine (I haven’t talked to any of the kids in the group, but I’m sure they’re ok). As soon as the land lines started working in the middle of the night, everyone started calling up and checking in (I slept through all of that, but Kelly told me the phone woke her up every ten minutes). I still haven’t had the opportunity to call or text home (it’s pretty early there anyways, and I’m sure they haven’t heard about it yet) because my phone service is dead and I haven’t wanted to call using the house phone ($). I’ll contact them once it’s not so early in AZ (it’s still about 8 or so there) and I have electricity to charge my US cell phone (shouldn’t be too long, they’re pretty used to earthquakes here, though not this big usually. Apparently they haven’t had one this big since 1984).

Around here things don’t seem to be so bad: a fallen wall in the garden, some downed trees here and there (our fridge also tipped over a bit, but it’s fine now). I don’t know about the rest of the city, though. Apparently there are about 60 or 70 dead throughout Chile, but again, that’s all just hearsay since we don’t have radio or internet. Kelly was saying it was very lucky that we were all in the house, that I wasn’t out carreteando (partying), and I have to agree. I wouldn’t have known what to do if I was out by myself (let alone out by myself and drunk without telephone or public transportation). Could you imagine being on the metro during that quake? It would’ve been terrifying (though luckily the metro doesn’t run at that hour, so no one had to go through that, thank God).”

So you can see, the intensity/the gravity of the situation didn't hit me until I talked to my mother yesterday afternoon. And it still hasn't hit me, really, because I still haven't seen any photos or video footage. It's a very different thing to know that several hundred people have died and to see it with your own eyes. I still don't think it's hit me yet.

So, again, everything is good, everyone is fine, no se preocupen (don't worry:-) ). I'll try to talk to everyone whenever I can on the internet, but my house still doesn't have power so my internet access is fairly limited (I'm at my host grandmother's right now writing this; some neighborhoods weren't hit as hard and still have power).

Thank you for your thoughts and concern, que todo les vaya bien.

♥