Earthquake in Chile 5

Saturday March 6^th

4:40 am we arrived at the Red Cross. We all were required to wear a Red Cross tunic and decorate each vehicle with flags and signs identifying ourselves as part of the convey heading out to the coast. We headed out to the highway, and starting seeing signs of damage on the highway right away, minor cracks and heaves in seemingly random spots. We met up with the rest of the convey arriving from the south, at a gas station about an hour outside of Valdivia. We were about 10 trucks in total, about 3 full of food and provisions, one water tanker, and the rest medium to smaller size trucks with equipment, supplies and volunteers.

We headed off together, and only after about 30-40 minutes, the lead truck encountered a broken piece of highway, and had to brake suddenly. Unfortunately, this caused a domino effect down the line- we were almost rear-ended by the semi truck behind us, who slammed on his breaks to avoid hitting us, and was rear-ended by the truck behind him. The driver suffered minor injuries, but the water tanker was done. The whole front end was smashed in, and he had to drain the tank, and wait for help to get back to Valdivia. Rough start....

Off we went again. Driving through Temuco we saw a number of pedestrian overpasses that had collapsed in the earthquake, one had actually fallen on a truck! The trip was long and slow, manoeuvring around damaged areas of the highway, and eventually turning off the highway heading toward the coast to Lebú, about 150 km south of where the earthquake hit the hardest.

We had to stop for gas, and the line-ups were so long, we would have been there for hours had the gas attendants not been kind enough to recognize that we needed to get going, and allowed us to jump the line, and fill up. We crossed a mountain pass, and started getting closer to the coast. Here signs of damage were everywhere-big wide cracks running down the middle of the road, closed portions of highway, broken bridges, damaged houses, and people everywhere- it seemed they were just waiting… when they saw the Red Cross convoy, they ran out, shouting and waving, so happy to see that someone was finally coming to the area with food and supplies. Probably one of the most touching moments was passing a small house, and a family was sitting on the side of the road yelling and waving to us. One of the little boys waved a hand written sign that said “Please help Lebú”.

As we got closer to Lebú, the road got worse, and there were more and more traffic line-ups to detour around sections of severely damaged highway. People were leaving the coast in hoards, packed into cars and trucks loaded with personal belongings.

We squeezed through narrow sections of dirt roads passing lines of vehicles amid clouds of thick dust, finally arriving at the other end, where we saw the sign for Lebú. The area was beautiful, a town set right on the ocean, surrounded by hills covered in thick vegetation. As we started the long descent into town, we saw all the people. Hundreds of small camps dotted the hills and the sides of the road, all shouted and waving for us to stop and give them food. Tents and lean-to´s lined the highway, with makeshift kitchens and living rooms out in the open.

There was a small roadside creek with a huge line-up of people waiting to fill their buckets because there was still no water.

We arrived in town, and went straight to the Red Cross. The army presence was felt immediately, and for that we were thankful because as soon as we arrived, people started coming to the Red Cross begging for us to give them a box of food.

It was all so chaotic, and the potential for riots was growing, so we parked the truck inside the yard of the Red Cross and the army gently herded the people away, as there was a city-wide curfew, and there would be no time that day to distribute any food. It was so sad to see the people loitering outside the gates…one woman was crying. They just wanted a box of food, and we couldn´t give it because the danger of looting and complete anarchy was very high if we gave in.

Everyone just had to wait one more day. We were told to park our truck in the yard, but beside the house next to us, because it was the less likely of the two houses we were parked between, to fall down in an aftershock!

And speaking of aftershocks…we were standing outside discussing our plan for the next day, when one hit. Wow! There was this huge shuddering jolt. The buildings all creaked and shook, and you could see the momentary panic in everyone´s eyes. It was short, but strong...and we realized all of a sudden- here we are in the earthquake/tsunami zone. Shortly after, we assembled to make an evacuation plan in the event of another tsunami..it was sobering.

Before the curfew, we walked through the streets a bit. It was eerie, like a ghost town. The roads were a mess, lots of damage to homes, and the road along the water front was destroyed. The concrete had twisted and buckled into creepy shapes like it was made of rubber, the river in front of the street was nearly dry, and the boats from the ocean had all been pushed up into the river bed with the tsunami, and there they lay, smashed up, lying sideways or upside down, most out of water...it was really disturbing to imagine the force that caused such destruction.

There was one cute little fella that seemed really happy to have the Red Cross building occupied that night. He showed up, and immediately made a bed in a pile of straw right outside the house.

That night we prepared our plan for the following day, packed dog food into smaller bags to distribute to those who had none, and prepared to sleep.

Six of the young Red Cross youths arranged a guard schedule to watch over us all and the equipment while we all slept. Apparently there were a number of violent aftershocks through the night, but the truth is that we were so exhausted, we all slept right through them!