Earthquake in Chile 3

Finally the army made it to Concepcion where it sounds like they are starting to restore some sense of order- at least with respect to the looting and violence. There is an 18 hour curfew now. The entire place is a mess, but they are finally bringing some essentials such as water, food, blankets etc into the city. They are moving more buses around the country, but only during the day. Gas is making it slowly into Valdivia but we haven´t been able to fill up yet. Still there is no organized effort to get volunteers into affected areas- it is still too early, but we are waiting to hear if and when they will need us. With regard to helping animals, we haven´t heard much; again it is still too early. There are still aftershocks in the 4´s and 5´s that rock the houses and apartments. Yesterday we learned that officials had made a mistake in the reporting of tsunami warnings- there actually was a high probability that the Chilean coast would be hit and in fact was hit in multiple places, but the Chilean president indicated that because the earthquake had hit on land, there was no risk. Pretty big error! Despite her announcement, we know that people around here still have their bags packed- just in case, and that water did recede on the beach near us, and that the town across the bay from us was evacuated. I guess people knew better after living their entire lives in such a seismically active area. Some things here in Valdivia are returning to normal, although everything still feels surreal, and there is a strange sense of reluctance to get back to work when there is such a disaster going on around us.