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Please pray for Chile

Tomasso

Incurably Addicted
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USA
Sad news. I've met dozens of very cool Chileans through my friend and neighbor, George. I will pay my respects first thing tomorrow .
 

Marc Chevalier

Gone Home
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18,192
Location
Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
.



Thank you both. The sad thing is that Chile is a long, very thin country that runs along the Pacific coast from top to bottom. Many, many cities and towns sit right on the coastline. Waves of tsunami have already hit those cities and towns. I'm praying that enough people were evacuated in time.


Thank God it wasn't as strong as this one:


"The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the West Coast of the United States."



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Smithy

I'll Lock Up
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5,139
Location
Norway
I'm very distressed by this as well, my wife and I lived in Chile in 2004 - 2005 in Santiago and it holds a special place in my heart. Sadly already I have read a news report which suggests that a beautiful old church just round from where we lived in Providencia has collapsed. And we still have to contact our friends there.

Truly tragic.
 

Geesie

Practically Family
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717
Location
San Diego
Luckily Chile is a developed nation with a history of quakes. Their building codes are quite good so it's not nearly as tragic as Haiti.
 

Marc Chevalier

Gone Home
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18,192
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Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
Geesie said:
Luckily Chile is a developed nation with a history of quakes. Their building codes are quite good so it's not nearly as tragic as Haiti.

That's true, but it's also a country with many older (19th and early 20th century) buildings faced with plaster but constructed with adobe bricks. Many of them have collapsed, including a 19th century church that I used to attend. I believe that Santiago's Fine Arts Museum -- a beautiful Beaux Arts structure built in 1910 for Chile's centennial-- has also suffered severe damage. Not to mention the many early 1900s homes that urban working class Chileans tend to live in.



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Marc Chevalier

Gone Home
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18,192
Location
Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
Matt Deckard said:
Have you gotten any word from there yet Marc?

My thoughts are with your family.

Thank you, Matt and everyone. Yes, we were miraculously able to reach my wife's family by 'Skype' phone only 40 minutes after the quake hit. It shouldn't have been possible, but we got through. No one was hurt, but the house was badly damaged. Several other relatives are still unaccounted for.



Said one guest at a high-rise hotel, "The building was swaying AND moving up and down!" Three hospitals in Santiago collapsed, radio reports said. The earthquake lasted for more than two minutes. That's the definition of a nightmare.

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