Life Surrounded by Mountains in Central Chile
I will be seeing her next Monday to take her to the vet once again. I have not seen her since the last time that I wrote. I suspect that she is doing fine, given that she is surrounded by four children, but I am going to check. Thanks for asking.
ps good luck tomorrow; I will be thinking of you.
While I collected plastic bottles on the beach I let them explore. Later on I discovered that Rachel had been eating sand and Jake a dead bird.
Yes, Peggy, Rachel threw up and Jake seems to also have survived it thus far. They are like babies, all new things go in the mouth, and the pebbles had lots of organic smells as did the desd bird
We just had a 7.9 richter scale tremor which lasted a long time. All three of us are fine. We have had three after shiocks, and we have a tsunami warning which came through my phone while I post this message.
There is a steady flood of cars moving up the street next to my house as they heed the tsunami warning
It is dark here, and if there should be a tsunami, I can watch it from my office which is in the safe zone. The epicenter of the 8.4 earthquake was in the north of Chile, in Illapel which is 159 km from Viña del Mar, almost exactly 100 miles. We expect tremors for the next few days. The entire coast of Chile is under a tsunami warning and orders to evacuate.
The dogs are not responding, they just want to sleep, and I keep insisting that they get out of the house. The cell phone keeps ringing the tsunami alarm.
There are multiple shocks, some which prevent me from writing. The lights are still on, and so is the television which is reporting larger waves than normal, but no serious threat of a tsunami thus far. I am going to walk to the shoreline, where I can watch what is going on from a high point.
It sounds exciting, but I would be terrified of the tsunami. Hope you stay safe!
Chile is being hammered. I'm subscribed to the USGS earthquake feed and 4 quakes over 6.5 in about 2 hours. This doesn't include the shocks at 6.4 and below.
Stay safe.
Thank you. I just came back after taking a walk to the shoreline. The water has definitely receded, about 25 meters, and the ships lights are moving in unusual patterns. Normally they are a steady light like a star, but tonight they move so that sometimes the lights points straight at the shoreline and it is a very bright light for a minute. That is definitely the action of waves, but whether that will create damage is something else.
Someone said that they read of their phone that the water is coming into the Marga Marga which is a stream that flows into the center of town. Normally there are lots of cars that park there, and they are probably going to turn into boats tonight.
The area of town below me is without any lights, about five square blocks, but everyplace else has lights. Police are blocking some of the main roads coming into this area of Vina del Mar, into Reñaca. Still some people went into the beach, a man was walking on the shoreline, and several cars were riding by the road next to the beach. They were taking ridiculous chances. Fortunately, it will probably turn out well for them.
The entire neighborhood was out on the street. As I have mentioned, this area is full of high rises, so some folks were at street level, and it felt a bit like a party. Everyone is safe here, the worst of it thus far are those five square blocks without lights.
The tsunami warning is not not over, but soon I am going to go to bed.
These houses, even this summer "cottage" is literally built like a bunker. I discovered that when I tried to put some pictures on the wall, not even my electric drill which is not a toy drill could get a hole in the wall to place a nail. I had to get the conserje to use his drill bit on my drill to get make a hole, so that I could put up a picture.
Some pictures I have leaning on my cabinet which is very fragile, thin, and tall. I had been thinking that I needed to do something about the pictures on top of the cabinet, so that they wouldn't get damaged. They didn't even fall.
But I could feel the ground moving during the earthquake, it was like a gentle movement up and down, as if I were standing on a water bed. I moved myself and the dogs into the yard which is the spot that is very safe should the earthquake get stronger. The only threat in that spot is the light post and electric wires, but supposedly the lights will go out on a strong earthquake. The lights did not go out on this one.
I just read all my messages on the phone; I was charging it. There is chaos in the center of town according to my landlady, and I invited her daughter who lives in a glitsy apartment building to come to sleep here. Her brand new building has evacuated because the pipes burst.
News here is reporting mass evacuations, but I think that is closer to epicentre and Santiago.
Wishing all will stay well; I know Chile is used to these events and they always sound worse than they seem when you're there.
The mass evacuations were due to the tsunami warning, and Santiago is inland. The evacuation in Reñaca was complete out of the valley, I am on a hill, so they came up here. The tsunami warning still has not been lifted, and we have had 14 aftershocks thus far.
When I went for a walk with the dogs less than an hour ago, I could overlook the street that borders the beach. I have taken many photos of that street and posted them on this thread. I just heard on the tv that that same street, in fact where I took the photos which are immediately above, was innundated by a wave. It is not known how much damage the wave has caused. We will know tomorrow. The town where the wave did hit is called Concon, and you can google it if you are interested. It is VERY close to where I am.
According to the tv the tsunami warning has not been lifted, because not always do tsunami waves come twenty minutes after the quake. They can come later, perhaps related to the aftershocks.
The earthquake was an 8.4 earthquake in the epicenter, according to the tv, but in Viña del Mar, it registered 7.2. That's a baby quake in this land. Some of the aftershocks have been 7.2, but I am not sure where that 7.2 aftershock took place.
Tsunami warnings allaround Pacific rim, incl NZ east coast, Peru, Hawaii. Buenos Aires had buildings fall, apparently. High seas up the west coast of USA.
Curiously, here on Gold Coast, we have an extended high winds/high seas warning until tomorrow night. But I think that's more because of weather patterns coming the other way (our weather tends to go west to east; the maps are showing some stuff coming from your way but more coming the other direction).
People have been drifting back to the valleys, so the phone just rang again with an evacuation order. It's interesting that the tsunami warning has rung all over the Pacific Rim. Vina del Mar is a big city that is very well wired, Renaca and Concon are within Vina del Mar. It may well be that areas that are not well connected have had damage, and we will know more about it tomorrow.
I am sleepy but too scared to go to sleep, but I am going to try with shoes and clothing next to the bed.
Whoa! Saw about the quakes on the news, and opened up your blog. Glad you are ok.
FWIW the seismic shocks were recorded in schools (as part of their science-y stuff) here in Australia. And several islands in the Pacific, already experiencing some coastal issues as a result of rising sea levels, have been warned to clear quite far back because of the expected wave heights in the next few hours (up to 10-15hours). Solomons, Fiji, etc (all talking about this last week) are reported to be on high alert.
I wonder if it will like the time we were all warned of a massive incoming tsunami crossing from NZ and all we got was 2" waves... 
I just woke up, and the tsunami warning was cancelled here only an hour ago.
Rachel threw up sand this morning and last night as well.
^^^ Seems like things are back to normal for you. I sincerely hope the same can be said for others closer to the impact zone of the earth quake, after shocks, and tsunami. Stay safe.
I stand corrected; it was an 8.3 earthquake where I am, not 7.2. I said 7.2 because that is what they said on tv, but the Times is reporting 8.3.
this road was wet this morning, and it's the road that Chilean tv reported that a wave hit it last night. A cousin of mine was on the 16th floor of one of those high rises you see in the picture, and she's lived in Chile all her life; she was scared last night
Really glad glad you're OK, and it seems so are the rest of the family. It's the 18th here: happy National Day
Now that the television is back online, I am getting a different understanding of what took place. I read that three waves came into the beach in Concon, one may have been higher than a one-story building, and a surfing school as well as many restaurants are gone or severely damaged. Here are pictures of the street I walk in every day, but in the low lying areas: http://tv.emol.com/#/channel-detail/20150917010255002/actualidad
These are are daytime pictures of the damage: http://www.emol.com/mundografico/index.asp?G_ID=35140#2015/09/17/35140_25981_538229038
And a member of my Toastmaster's Club made this tape of La Boca, a beach where there is a surfing school, and they were training for competion when they were hit by the tsunami. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i5Q66hFBss
If anyone is interested in helping, many people in low lying areas were wipped out. All their assets are gone, including their clothing. It gets cold at night in Chile, if someone can organize a coat drive it would be great. Or you can donate to Catholic Charities which has an excellent network in the country and it is also highly rated by Charity Watch: https://www.charitywatch.org/ratings-and-metrics/catholic-relief-services/398
This is the beach of Tongoy, a beach near the epicenter of the quake, where the worst of the tsunami damage is:
http://www.lanacion.cl/noticias/pais/sismologia/sismo-de-8-4-el-tsunami-golpeo-fuerte-en-tongoy/2015-09-16/231522.html
and this is the damage at the epicenter of the quake:
http://tv.emol.com/#/detail/20150917143500937/mira-como-se-ve-el-centro-de-illapel-post-terremoto
Thank you.
Good grief. I'm glad you are all right and that things are calm again for now.
For Sale
-
2007 Honda Fit $4,400
More info
Free Items
Sponsored Business
Promote your business here - Businesses get highlighted throughout the site and you can add a deal.
Copihue, it was so funny: chatting with my sister, I told her about National Day so she can celebrate with Carlos. She had no idea!! Apparently there's a good South American baker nearby, so she's going to see what she can get for Friday night dinner