The ground is STILL shaking....

Writing this post fast, before I start to forget, so please excuse grammar and other errors.

Saturday morning, Feb. 27, about 3:45 a.m. woke up with a start -- my bed was moving and the ground was rumbling. Got out of bed very disoriented and walked a few steps towards light switch to see what was going on. In those few seconds, I realized what was happening. "Un temblor," or a tremour, which I'd experienced as kid in Chile, lots of them. I turned on the light switch but the light was only on for a second and it all went dark. By then, the room was not just trembling but shaking violently. It was as if my dad's summer cottage was made of cardboard, the way it shook back and forth.

I screamed to the kids, who were still sleeping in the same room with me, to get up and come join me under the door frame to our room, which is what I remember doing during those long ago tremours. At about this time, I heard Gladys' daughter-in-law, Jacqui, and her two girls coming down the hallway. Jacqui was praying, loudly. "God, protect us; help us, Lord; we are your children, we need your help right now...!" I immediately thought of my mom, Lita, because that was exactly what she would have been doing, at a time like this.

I started to pray too, but just in my head. The house was still shaking, things were falling off shelves and breaking, the rumbling was deafening, but the kids were now with me, and we just waited. Thankfully, the house just shook but the roof didn't collapse, the walls stayed put. When it finally stopped (they say the earthquake lasted about three minutes) I realized this had been no "tremour," like the ones I'd experienced as a kid. At all.

I managed to get on the internet, for just a couple of minutes; the only thing I found was a warning issued by a U.S. weather service of tsunamis hitting major coastlines of South America, and Chilean ports, starting at about 6:30 a.m. Chilean time. It was now 4 a.m. (I also sent Peter a brief message, letting him know we were OK).

Gladys, her son Alejandro and his wife Jacqui, and me briefly discussed leaving the beach house, as we were now seeing cars heading out, one after another. Alejandro said the roads to Santiago would be jammed, plus we didn't know what sort of damage was out there (downed power lines, broken pavement, collapsed bridges), so we decided not to panic, and to stay put. (Inside though, I was terrified of a tsunami, as the beach house is only about three blocks from the actual beach. Thankfully, a neighbour accross the street, a local firefighter, came over at one point to tell us he'd been told (radioed) by other emergency personnel that the tsunami warnings had been lifted for our area... which made me feel just marginally better. Not a lot.)

At around 5 a.m., a truck pulled up to the house. It was my dad! He'd been at his farm house, but worrying about us, he'd gotten dressed and driven the hour or so, to the beach. We were all so happy and relieved to see him. He'd told us there was damage on the roads (fallen rocks from hills, etc) but because no one was heading towards the beach, he'd been able to avoid/swerve most of the damage to get there fairly fast.)

I should mention that all through this, the ground kept shaking. Every five minutes, sometimes every ten, everything would shake again. Not like the first time, but everything would shake. Not sure how to describe this, and how I felt, but "terrified" is probably a good word. Terrified we'd get a worse shaking than the first time and that walls would start coming down. By this time, we had no power, no water, and neither cell phones nor the internet was working. Also, it was cold, with breeze from the beach waters making everything damp. Fortunately, the gas stove ...

(It's shaking AGAIN and badly. Just now, another big huge tremour hit, at 8:28 a.m. our time, and we are now on the sixth floor of a Santiago apartment building!!! My heart is beating wildly... but, it just passed. Nicky just came out of his room, said the tremour woke up him. "That was a bad one..." he said. I think everyone else is still sleeping -- Dad and Gladys are with us, as there was still no power or water at either of their properties last night.)

As I was saying, the gas stove worked and Gladys made us all tea, just after the earthquake.

I kept trying to call Peter but the cell phone kept saying "No connection." I tried calling my mom, both of my sisters, my brother. Same thing. Just after 6 a.m. Chilean time, I managed to get through and spoke with Peter, got only a few details before the call got cut, but at least he knew we were safe. Most of us then went back to bed for a couple of hours, and some of us slept.

By mid-morning, and once we were all up, we started packing up and cleaning the beach house (this had been the plan all along, but not till Sunday, as the Chilean summer vacation is now over). Just after 2 p.m., we headed out -- Alejandro and his family towards Santiago and us to the farm house near Melipilla. Again, we saw downed rocks but for the most part, the toll highways were absolutely fine and by this time, traffic had considerably thinned out.

Damage at the farm house had also been minimal, but all the furniture and kitchen appliances had moved. Still exhausted, we all slept again a bit. When we got up, we decided to head to Santiago, a day early, because we heard most of it had power and water (and we all  needed showers, etc.).

We arrived about 8 p.m. and when we opened the door to the apartment, it didn't look at all like when I'd rented it. There were books on the floor everywhere, broken glass as well (from a couple of lamps that had come down), the art work on the walls had shifted, and again, furniture had moved. (Obviously, no one had been by after the earthquake, to check on the place. Understandable, given everything that had happened.)

After cleaning up, I went out for some food and found a lone Indian restaurant open (everything else was closed, apparently unheard of, for a Saturday night in Santiago). Dad started watching the news and realizing the magnitude of the earthquake, the kids just chilled. (Unfortunately, I missed a call from Peter but we are connecting today).

We had a late dinner and spent the night here.... and here I am. It looks like a beautiful Sunday morning out there and actually, damage in the centre of the city is minimal. Large skyscrappers look as if nothing had happened and smaller buildings don't even have windows broken. (Heard on the news that construction in Chile had greatly improved following the major quakes of 1960 and 1985.)

As I said, however, the ground is still shaking. Unbelievable. There's been dozens and dozens of follow-up tremours after the initial quake... and they all feel absolutely awful... but my dad says there's never been a larger earthquake following up on an earlier quake... 

Let's just hope he's right.