Hey Dick, you okay down there?

[Rich Waugh]

I've been watching the reports of the earthquake that hit Santiago area last night and thinking of you. Hope you made it through okay. If there is anything any of us can do to help out, let us know, okay?

Hope to hear from you soon,

Rich

[jeep]

I was thinking the same thing hope all is well we have you in our prayers and all the folks down thier Jeep

[bracabric]

Thanks very,very much !! Just got internet access back sorry it's taken some time to respond. We are fine, we live in a modern apartment block that was built to the latest standard and though we were vigorously shaken (went on for nearly two minutes) all that happened was some fallen plaster and smashed wall tiles in the kitchen and laundry and a few ornaments . Our area is fairly affluent and there is not much damage, but the poorer areas (and there still are some despite Chile's affluence) have not been so lucky with a lot of damage, the lovely Church of Davina Providencia has lost it's dome for example. We have been asked to be careful with water and electricity so as not to overload the system. All my friends (many of them North Americans) are OK too. The test for us will be when we try to go north tomorrow to an old house we have been restoring. With many bridges down and problems with a tunnel it may take a long time AND we are told that there are two huge cracks in a support wall on the house.. oh well at 65 I am far to young to think of retirement !! Also getting to the farm (west of Santiago) will be fun because over the river estuary at Santo Domingo on the way the very long bridge was destroyed some 40 years ago by earthquake, so later on they built a new one to very high standards and..... yes that one has been destroyed as well !!
Shares in Building companies would make sense I think.
Thanks for your concern be we are all fine and very lucky that we could afford such a strongly built apartment, a lot cannot !!

Dick

PS the place not to be was the city of Concepcion, close to the epicenter and very nearly flat now !! Oh and the Government and emergency services have been wonderful, fast, well equipped and professional God bless em !!

[red]

Glad to hear you're O.K. was thinking about you and your family. Figured we wouldn't hear anything for days cause of internet being down (in Chile from the quake). Two friends are without power because of the snowstorm we had for the last 3 days. We ended up with about 18" my brother's area got 32". Heavy as concrete; lots of rain in the mix. Good luck!

[3RRL]

I was thinking about you too Dick,
Glad you are alright. I saw on the map that Santiago is way up North and was hoping you were not right in the middle of that quake. It was huge!
Good luck,
Rob-

[GuglioLS]

Dick,

Esther and I are relieved to hear your OK, perhaps a bit "shaken" but OK nonetheless. That quake was very powerful, 2 minutes? that must have felt like an eternity. I think I saw pictures of the destroyed bride you mentioned, looks pretty bad. Restoring traffic patterns to normal will take some time. Hope your home restoration project has not been set back to far and that everything is OK at the farm.

Larry

[bracabric]

Thanks a lot folks, God bless you all
Dick

[studor]

Sorry to chime in late but good to hear you are well. I spent the last several days digging out melting snow (it had so much water it was blue) and just saw the newscasts from Chile this morning. I heard they are still looking for some folks that were camping on an island

[bradblazer]

Dick,
Glad to hear you and your family are all right. Sounds like it made plenty of work for you.

My condolences to the many who did lose everything.

Be careful as you travel. Disasters can bring out the best and worst in people.

[quikduk]

Dick,

I just heard about the quake. Glad you and your family are OK. I hope everything stays well for you.

Ken

[bracabric]

Again thank you ALL very much and yes cracks and holes can be sorted, we are so lucky compared with people nearer the epicentre , last I heard there were 718 confirmed dead and that number is expected to rise. terrible !
We managed to get to the house today, I was fortunate to have a full tank of fuel in the pickup (can't get petrol for love nor money in Santiago) and went at a steady 50 mph until we got to the town nearest the house (La Calera) and saw a filling station serving people, so shot in and topped up and got a can from the house and returned to fill that up too, so now I can go to the farm tomorrow on my Motorcycle and see what has happened there, as you will understand it makes no sense to go somewhere in these conditions without enough fuel to get back.
The House was badly shaken , most of the roof tiles will have to be re-laid and there are some big cracks in the walls but nothing we can't fix
Thanks again for your concern...
Dick

[bracabric]

Hello all, we are still fine and have most of the amenities back, we are so lucky to be so far from the epicentre !
We managed to get up the PanAm yesterday to the house we have been doing up, the journey was difficult with many diversions, all the pedestrian ariel walkways over the Motorway had collapsed but teams of workers had pulled/pushed the bits to the side of the road so passage was possible.The house (all 8000 sq.feet of it) has suffered a lot of damage and much of our 14 months work will have to be re done.Almost all the interior had been finished and now is missing a lot of plaster and tiles and the two story end bit (see photos) that we had not yet started has suffered badly but hopefully is saveable.
I have fueled my Motorbike and have a can with me and am going to the Farm tday to see what has happened there, it should be difficult getting there as many Bridges have collapsed.. More later........
Dick
PS This is an e-mail I sent to friends outside Chile, thought you would be interested too...........

[bracabric]

Slightly off subject but.... have been thinking about replanting the area that burned 3-4 years ago. I was going to plant pine or eucaliptus shoots but we have had a huge fall of acorns at the house ( many oak and elm trees dispite the latitude ) and thought why not ? so spent most of this afternoon gathering them up and when we have had the first autumn rain I intend to walk the 5 or so acres and plant the acorns and hope for growth. I told Manuel the guy that works for us at the house that in 80 odd years time there should be a nice oak wood on the farm and he just can't understand why I would do something I shan't live to see. Chile can be very short term sometimes !
Dick