Earthquake in Chile

[mx_tifoso]

Hi everyone,

I've created this thread in relation to the earthquake that has hit Chile on Saturday (2/27) because fellow members, Pipex and Rod_in_Chile, live there. I don't know where exactly, but I think Pipex lives somewhere near the capital, Santiago, which was badly hit.

I've been in communication with Pipex outside of the forum and we last talked Friday evening, only to see the earthquake news this morning which has had me worried all day. He's great guy and I can't help but worry about him, as I can call him a good friend, just like I would call many of you on this forum.

I beg all of you to include them, their families, and everyone else affected in your prayers and/or best wishes.

Best regards and wishes,
Javier

Que Dios los bendiga y los cuide, espero que puedan leer esto pronto, con salud y bienestar.

[mx_tifoso]

Bump.

[autogyro]

My thoughts are with all those who have suffered this tragedy.
Please let us know if there is any news.

[Giblet]

Best wishes to all we know who are down there.

My cousin is living there right now with her boyfriend. She was able to communicate as soon as it happened on Facebook, to ease our troubled souls. The first time Facebook has been truly useful to me other than just being an easy way to stay in touch.

She is almost 600 miles away from the epicenter, and still felt it though. It wasn't the strength that scared her, but the duration of it. She is of course, OK.

I experienced one in Vancouver when the Seattle Earthquake happened, and it is quite scary, as you mind does not immediately understand what is happening. I was off work that day, couch-bound in my PJ's, having a lazy day. Next thing I know, my fridge is shaking, and this is what my mind went through:

"Why is my fridge shaking in it's alcove? The compressor? How can the fridge be shaking so hard it is making my horizontal venetian blinds in the window wiggle back and forth like a wave? Why is my head shaking? OH."

I stood up so fast, I almost passed out from the sudden rush of blood away from my head, while the world was mildly shaking around me.

Odd thing is, people in cars had no idea it happened, because of the suspension and tires absorbing it all.

[mx_tifoso]

Third day now without any news of Pipex. I hope to hear from him soon, and to be assured of his well being.

I'm rather fortunate to never have been affected by a natural disaster. The only threat around here is flooding in low lying areas, but my home is not in one of them so I'm safe.

Although if I would have remained in Mexico for two more weeks in August of 2009 I would have witnessed one of the worst floods in the history of Parral, Chihuahua. It was to be expected as up until I left it was raining nonstop, the flooding around the river that goes through the city was imminent.

And thank God that you're cousin is fine, Giblet. I couldn't imagine something bad happening to a close family member or friend.

[manchild]

http://www.google.com/relief/chileearthquake/

My best wishes to all good people in Chile, and no matter where something bad happens, regardless if it is due to nature or evil humans.

Perhaps we had at least visitors if not members from Tahiti who got killed or lost someone. Who can tell? People are getting killed all over the world by various causes.

It is nice to know that forum member who are communicating privately care about each other. I had my share in both ways.

Sorry, wanted to write something appropriate, but such tragedies leave me speechless, and out of proper words.

Just wanted to say that I wish all the best to all good people no matter where they live, what their religion or color of the skin is.

Good is only thing that matters.

[Mr Alcatraz]

A magnitude 8.8 is hard to imagine, it’s massive! I was in a third floor hotel room in Pasadena eight miles from the epicenter, when the 1987 Whittier Narrows quake hit! I came very close to jumping off my balcony on to a van in the lot. That was a magnitude 6.0 it felt like a train running into the building for about 45 seconds, with after-shocks of the same duration, and almost the same intensity.
I sincerely hope the people of the great state of Chile are spared the worst carnage, and suffering a quake of that magnitude is capable of!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHxLpM8a ... re=related[/youtube]

[Nikkolaz]

Hi, I'm new in this forum. My name is Nicolás, I'm 17 years old and I'm from Chile.
I've been reading this forum since 2009 everyday and many times a day too I like this forum very much, I've learned a lot here thanks to all the people that knows a lot about this sport

As I said, I'm 17 so this is the first earthquake that ive experienced, the last one was in 1985 but i wasnt in this world yet . At first I thought that it was just a "strong" temblor, but then suddenly everything started to move a lot, that was the moment that i knew i had to go downstairs I live in Santiago, which is like 500 KM from the epicenter, considering that, it was a 8.0 richter here, a lot of bridges falled down, buildings.. even the airport suffered damage, causing flights to be cancelled and derived to others countries such as Argentina... then the tsunami near the epicentre... wow

Well i wont go further in details, all i can say is that the death toll is over 700 and raising, a lot of missing people, communication is hard to establish and people are looting supermarkets to get food (and some are getting electrodomestics.. that embarrases me as a chilean )theres a curfew in the city of the epicenter too..

Thanks for all the good thoughts for the people in my country, I appreciate that and i hope you can excuse my English.

PS: I hope to keep posting here, I haven't because i dont know anything technical yet, even though i read the forum everyday

[Giblet]

Good to see you are OK, I hope your country and people can recover quickly from this shock.

[mx_tifoso]

We're all glad that you're ok Nicolas. And thank you for sharing your personal experience from this horrible event. We wish you the best.

Y ya sabes, estamos a tus ordenes aqui en el foro. Todos queremos aprender y no tiene nade de malo preguntar, o tan solo escuchar.

Here's a video of the looting (0:21). In another news segment the reporter asks the looters why they're stealing a min refrigerator, obviously he didn't get a response!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZSbiq-DDXM[/youtube]

[Belatti]

Best wishes to all Chilean people. I have been in a racing weekend and Im usually "out of the ordinary world" if you know what I mean, till on sunday afternoon I switched on the TV for a moment and I saw the bad news.

The shaking was so big that it was felt in the tallest buildings in Buenos Aires!!!

As Nico said, some flights have been transferred, there are a lot of people from Chile staying a couple of days here till things get better.

Also many Argentine provinces limiting with Chile where affected in a smaller magnitude. I heard our government is sending "movile hospitals" to the places that are needing them.

I hope they can get well soon.

[Giblet]

MX - you could ask tomba to ping his IP, if it is logged, and to do a "tracert -a" to that IP, and the 2nd last IP it shows will be his ISP that provided him his IP address.

If the ISP is down, that would at least point to him being OK but just without internet.

Best to assume that he is fine and the internet and our forum is the least of his worries, as he helps out friends and strangers.

I am an optimist.

[mx_tifoso]

Pipex is fine thank God.

I heard from him this morning. No details just yet, all I know is that he's ok.

[pipex]

Hi to everyone, thank god i'm fine (and my family too!). Thank you very much mx for creating this thread .

The earthquake was a really big one, and i live very much near the epicenter. The duration and the magnitude of this blew my mind, the first thing i thought was if my house was going to resist (while i was below a metal door frame in my bedroom). The city where I study is severely damaged and there have been a lot of problems with basic services such as water, electric energy and telephone, here too but at a lesser extent. One of the biggest problems is that some people began looting which is really sad and embarrasing (not in my city, thankfully). Now a tremendous task is ahead to restablish and fix all the problems this natural disaster brought to us, but I'm sure that this will be done as quickly as possible.

One interesting thing is i have read a paper that showed the possibility of a earthquake of this magnitude in the affected zone, with a Chilean co-author, published in 2008!. I don't know why this research was not taken in mind via contingency plans or whatever.

I really appreciate all the showing of concern in this thread from the members of the forum and specially from my great friend and fellow member mx_tifosi.

[Pandamasque]

It's nice to hear from you again pipex.

On a side note I heard talks about some changes to the axis of the earth after the earthquake. Is that true?