Thank you very much to all of you who have been asking about my family and sending encouraging messages. I've spent most of my time trying to get through on the phone to Chile lately. I'll copy and paste information I sent out to some friends after about 2 days of the earthquake.
"All my close family (4 families) live in one of the most affected areas, Talca, but fortunately they were all OK and all their houses were standing, when I managed to get through to my sister's house after about 3 hrs of agony here since I heard the news - as the Internet was showing all of downtown Talca in ruins.
To our surprise, my mother didn't seem shaken. I thought this would have been the end of her... But my sister says she kept saying that "she had been taken for a ride". I don't know if she was still dreaming or what from having been woken like that at 3.40 am. But I had noticed the last time I had spoken to her on the phone, that she said one or two things that didn't make sense in the conversation and kept repeating them, so I assume she's starting to become senile. When Pia arrived at her house, my brother Ricardo had already arrived and was helping with the clean up. All the beautiful family's crockery was apparently being put in small pieces in a rubbish bag! I still don't know the extent of the damage, but it's only material things which were not insured though.
However, we still have to hear from my brother in law's brother and sister who live in Concepcion, much closer to epicenter. As well as close relatives of friends.
And as far as I know they still have no water, power, or gas. At my sister's they have been cooking in embers in the BBQ. She only had the equivalent of a big pot of water yesterday. No shops were open.
Still not easy to get through on the phone, even to Santiago... it was a miracle that I managed to get through at all yesterday I think. Pia's home computer was hanging from one cable when they felt confident enough to go back inside the house, and I haven't heard of any person from Talca in Facebook yet.
My brother Hugo was in the South of Chile on vacation with his family, where they also felt a very strong tremor (6.0 degrees). He was due to return to Talca today, but the roads are still impassable and it took him a while to be able to fill up his car's tank as people rushed to service stations in case there's shortage of fuel.
It's been such a relief to know that they are all OK. Albeit we haven't heard from my older brother Gustavo yet but he'd been in Santiago so I'm not fearing for him. His wife and son live in Curico (between Santiago and Talca), but their house is pretty solid. His daughter Soledad lives in Argentina.
The saddest thing has been to learn of the falling of the old building in the corner of my sister Pia's home. Gunther, her husband, owned the building in conjunction with his brother, and this building was the source of quite a bit of extra income for them: They leased part of it to a Driving School whose owner has other branches in other small cities around Talca, and Pia was managing the Talca branch for her. They also leased the other part of the building for carparks and Gunther was teaching German also from these premises. So.... it's 4 means of income there that are likely going to be lost for them. Pia hasn't heard from the owner yet so she's fearing that she might decide to close the Talca branch.
Well, will keep you posted."
