Mas Replicas

Today Chile experienced an "aftershock" a whopping magnitude of 7.2. Here in Santiago, we only experienced about a 5.2?? I was in the study abroad office which is located on the 17th floor of the UChile office building. Now, the higher you are, the more you feel it because the buildings here sway during earthquakes, almost like you'd picture a flower in a small breeze. The buildings are are constructed to bend and sway during tremors rather than break.

I was a little more at ease because I was with Patricio and Elsa, our study abroad staff, but the replicas don't scare me too much anyway. I always assume they will not be big, although this one was different. There were three replicas in a row. One strong one. Then a follow up which was very light. Then about a minute and a half later, the 7.2 or as I experienced 5.2, although for me it was a little more intense because of the location.

After the third replica we all had to evacuate the building.


These are a lot of the employees standing outside waiting to make sure it was safe. Everyone was either calling friends/family, listening to the radio, or checking their lap tops for the news. We were all so surprised when we found it was a 7.2!


The building I was in. So tall!

Afterward I hailed a taxi and went home. It's funny looking at all the people walking around like nothing happened. The city just returns to normal, and everyone's going about their own business. But we all have in common that we just experienced this slightly large aftershock. You look at everyone and wonder if they're scared, how they reacted, and how their day has been affected. Most probably received a phone call from a family member asking if they were okay. Although, calling someone after an intense aftershock is just about as impossible as calling someone at midnight on new years eve.


The kids getting picked up after the Replica


Construction workers dealing with aftermath and Chileans recovered and once again going about their day.

And during all of this madness, Chile's government was shifting from socialist to capitalist as President Sebastián Piñera was being inaugurated into office. Unfortunately, his inauguration had to be cut short and everyone was evacuated. Sorry Piñera .....



(courtesy of NYTimes. )
Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay and Rafael Correa of Ecuador during the inaugeration of Piñera . Apparently the ceiling was very shaky....


But for meee, unfortunately all activities were canceled for the rest of the day including my spanish class for extranjeros and our ambassador meeting.

Terremoto

So of course:
Out of all the countries I've decided to study in (though Chile is very earthquake prone..) and the year I study there, the 5th largest earthquake ever recorded occurs (So i hear..).

It was not as terrifying as it might sound, but I was also very far from the epicenter. The magnitude here in Santiago was about 7.5 I believe? Santiago is more or less in good condition. Unfortunately, Southern Chile has faced tragedy and thousands if not millions are homeless.


My experience:
I woke up to the sound of my building rattling. I stayed laying in bed thinking of what it could be: a truck is driving by?? A train? Meanwhile the rattling is getting louder and louder. So I shoot out of bed look out my window. The word earthquake crosses my mind, but I think, no it couldn't be. A plane?? A truck?? The rattling gets louder and all of a sudden the ground begins shaking beneath me. At this point, I could no longer deny that this was an earthquake.

So I hear my host-mom in the hallway calling my name. Meanwhile, the shaking is getting stronger and stronger. I meet my host-mom in the hallway and we link arms feeling and attempt to feel our way towards the door. Meanwhile the shaking continues to get even stronger.

Finally, it is somewhat of a struggle to stand up. We got to the door and I was frantically trying to unlock it. We have to turn the key about five times. I've never been so frantic in my life! Finally I manage to unlock the door, and I open it to the sound of screams coming from the above floors. One lady was going crazy. I thought that chileans would maybe be familiar with earthquakes, so the screams really scared me. The buidling was rattling so loudly I thought it was going to collapse, so I tried running down the stairs to evacuate the buildling but my host-mom told me to stay in the doorway of our apartment, so I did. We stood there hugging as the ground was shaking and the building rattling, amongst all the screams. I've never felt so helpless!

However, the shaking eventually began to get lighter and finally stopped. Biggest relief of my life! And then we turned around to a very messy apartment. One of the ceiling lamps shattered all over the table, my shower is broken, and we have cracks in our walls (only the outer layer, which is very thin). The walls are still very sturdy.

On a lighter note, school begins soon. I will try and post more often and add more pics!