Guest Blogger:  Jaime Abarca


On February 27 2010 at 03:34:17, an earthquake occurred in Chile.

The earthquake was localized near the city of Concepcion, including other cities of the central-south part of the country like Valparaiso and Santiago.

The scale of the earthquake in Concepcion was of 8,8 ( just a few point lower than the biggest earthquake that was Valdivia’s of 1960, with 9,5), 8 in Santiago and 7 in Valparaiso.

All round the affected zones, houses and buildings fell down, being the most affected the towns near Concepcion like Chillan, Lota, Paine, etc.

People have been without basic services (water, electricity, food) for nearly 5 days, and being just reestablished the services form yesterday (March 3).

Also, a tsunami affected certain areas, including the small island of Juan Fernandez, which is right now with most of its territory underwater.

Military control has been designated to take care of the cities and towns near the center of the earthquake, which has been suffering from more earthquakes near 6-7 grades on the scale, to avoid robbery to stores and the homes of the people that have nothing more than a few little things to survive.

President Michelle Bachelet asked for international help and countries like Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Spain, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Uruguay, China, Bolivia, Canada, South Korea, Cuba, France, Switzerland and USA have sent doctors, food, clothing and everything necessary for helping the people in the south side of the country.

The situation is the most dramatic one lived by the country since the Earthquake of 1985 that affected Santiago and Valparaiso and this earthquake is the biggest since the 1960’s earthquake in Valdivia, that is, actually, the biggest earthquake in the history of the modern world so far.

This earthquake was 178 times bigger than the one that affected Haiti about 2 months ago, and as strong as the Hiroshima’s atomic bomb.

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook have been vital to keep people up to date with the latest news and, also, to know about their loved ones that are living in the affected zones.

There are several ways for helping, if you are in Chile:

- You can make a monetary donation through “Hogar de Cristo” (more information available on www.hogardecristo.cl)
- You can make a donation of food and clothing through the Chilean and international Red Cross
- You can also go to the nearest Chilean consulate to ask how you can help and, also, about your loved ones if they are in Chile and you know could have been affected by this earthquake too.
- Television presenter Don Francisco, will, organize ” Chile ayuda a Chile” ( Chile helps Chile), a Telethon that will raise money to help the victims of the disaster this Friday (March 5)

You can check for more information on what’s happening and how to help on www.gobierno.cl and www.onemi.cl.

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