Chile Tsunami ‘The sea was 30 metres high. Everybody ran’
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Mar 2, 2010, 8:05:04 AM3/2/10
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Great Earthquakes In Diverse Places
From The Times
March 2, 2010
Chile Tsunami: The sea was 30 metres high. Everybody ran
Dom Phillips, Constituci�n
�
A mother and daughter are reduced to tears after looters set fire to a supermarket near their home in Constituci�n
When the earthquake struck the dirt-poor coastal town of Constituci�n, Jos� Carrasco was sleeping in the cab of his truck by the beach.
It was really strong, shaking he said. Forty-five minutes later he saw the first tsunami wave coming towards him.
The sea came and covered everything. It was 30 metres high. There were two waves. When we saw the sea coming in, everybody ran. I climbed up the hill.
The smell of death hung yesterday over this impoverished fishing town, battered not just by the earthquake but by the tsunami that came in its wake and claimed hundreds of lives.
Much of it lay in ruins. Debris from the waves covered the beach and the tiny port. Mr Carrasco�s blue truck was a tangle of bent metal, surrounded by the remains of battered cars, their windows shattered and tyres flat.
A yellow food stall was stuck on top of the shell of a yellow van on a pile of broken timber. Electricity pylons were wrapped around giant palm trees torn from their roots.
Bulldozers had begun shoving the debris � piles of broken metal, bits of cars, trucks, railings, wood and palm fronds. Constituci�n now resembles a giant scrapyard.
Ronald Bosselaar, 47, was clutching a faded old photo of himself � showing a young man with two friends making music together. It is all he has left. My house was completely destroyed. For two days I�ve been on the street, I haven�t eaten, he said.
Further along the shore a 200metre row of wooden houses, a small restaurant and a disco had been reduced to a pile of broken lumber. All that was recognisable was a couple of broken fridges, some clothing, and a DVD player, oddly intact.
Lampposts had been snapped off their base and tossed aside by the waves. A mattress was draped over a branch ten metres up a tree. On the hill a Chilean flag hung mournfully above the remains of a concrete building.
Carolina Olivares, 21, showed how the waves shattered windows in the concrete-floored house she shares with her family, 30 metres above the sea, while the water poured through the ground floor. It was terrible, she said. �I saw the sea coming and I ran.
Next door, the house of Fidelmira Jaramillo, 55, was even more covered in mud and filth. She began to cry as she remembered those fateful moments shortly before dawn on Saturday. I ran. I watched it come in, and went out, and then it came back again. Now I don�t have anything to eat.
Houses have been reduced to rubble on every street in the town centre. People in dirty clothes wander aimlessly or loiter on corners, some carrying their possessions in plastic bags or plastic crates.
Soldiers in camouflage directed the traffic. Police stood guard by the ruins. Workmen in yellow jackets take rubble down narrow streets in wheelbarrows.
At the police headquarters two looters were dragged in, their arms pinned behind their backs by officers. The atmosphere became tense as police began clearing looters from the URMAX clothing store near by. The looters left sullenly as police shouted, shoved and searched their bags.
There was looting here on Saturday, Alex Vergara, an officer, said. We came and took people out. We arrested 12 looters.
Two police on horseback arrived as the store was emptied.
On the other side of the street a grille had been opened at the Mayorista supermarket, and even as one store was being cleared of looters, another was being sneakily invaded.
The town gymnasium has been turned into a morgue, with the body bags lined up on the basketball court. The broken, bloody corpse of an old woman, twisted in the agony of her death, was covered with a blanket, yet to be bagged.
Relatives were brought in to identify victims by government officials in white plastic suits and face masks. Others queued by the metal gate guarded by police.
We have 103 bodies, said Lieutenant H. Casas-Corderos, but we expect to find more.
In the gym's car park a sombre crowd has gathered in front of a white plastic board on which the names of identified victims are written.
Claudia Toledo, 22, sat on a wall with her aunt Mar�a Becerra Chamorro, 64. She was sleeping at her boyfriend�s house when the earthquake struck and she ran into the street. Her parents' house was completely destroyed.
�I lost everything,� she said. My father and mother are both dead.
Paula Lara, 38, arrived and tearfully embraced Claudia. Her family were on Canc�n Island, just off the coast, but they survived, she said, by hanging on to trees. Her apartment block shook heavily and all the crockery was broken.
Rosa Gonz�lez Gacit�a, 30, was in a bar when the tremors began and she recalled chaos and people running. She said that her friend Hugo was by the river when the water arrived. He clung on to a tree when the first wave hit. He was swimming for safety, she said, when the second wave came but managed to save himself.
A fire engine passed, sirens screaming. A fire had broken out at a paper mill. People waited expectantly behind the railings of a supermarket as food was handed out.
Others queued to get water from a tanker, grumbling about the Government�s slow response to the national tragedy. Santiago is not worried about us. The politicians don�t care, Mario Rocha shouted as he loaded an old metal trolley with plastic bottles of water.
Many sleep in tents on the edge of town. Petrol is scarce. Drivers push their cars in the huge queues at each petrol station. There is no electricity or running water. The highway into Constituci�n is rutted with cracks and holes.
In the town�s picturesque, leafy main square, the fa�ade of an ornate church had fallen down, exposing its brickwork. Elvis Ram�rez, who worked in the paper mill before the earthquake struck, sat on a bench in boots, jeans and a cheap, green nylon jacket.
When the ground began to shake at 3.45am on Saturday morning, he ran out of his three-storey apartment building as fast as he could. He was lucky � he was on the ground floor. His wife and grandmother were not. They were killed when the second and third storeys fell as the building collapsed. He had lost everything and was staying with friends.
Mr Ram�rez had no idea what he was going to do next. Survive, he shrugged.
From The Times
March 2, 2010
Chile Tsunami: The sea was 30 metres high. Everybody ran
Dom Phillips, Constituci�n
�
A mother and daughter are reduced to tears after looters set fire to a supermarket near their home in Constituci�n
When the earthquake struck the dirt-poor coastal town of Constituci�n, Jos� Carrasco was sleeping in the cab of his truck by the beach.
It was really strong, shaking he said. Forty-five minutes later he saw the first tsunami wave coming towards him.
The sea came and covered everything. It was 30 metres high. There were two waves. When we saw the sea coming in, everybody ran. I climbed up the hill.
The smell of death hung yesterday over this impoverished fishing town, battered not just by the earthquake but by the tsunami that came in its wake and claimed hundreds of lives.
Much of it lay in ruins. Debris from the waves covered the beach and the tiny port. Mr Carrasco�s blue truck was a tangle of bent metal, surrounded by the remains of battered cars, their windows shattered and tyres flat.
A yellow food stall was stuck on top of the shell of a yellow van on a pile of broken timber. Electricity pylons were wrapped around giant palm trees torn from their roots.
Bulldozers had begun shoving the debris � piles of broken metal, bits of cars, trucks, railings, wood and palm fronds. Constituci�n now resembles a giant scrapyard.
Ronald Bosselaar, 47, was clutching a faded old photo of himself � showing a young man with two friends making music together. It is all he has left. My house was completely destroyed. For two days I�ve been on the street, I haven�t eaten, he said.
Further along the shore a 200metre row of wooden houses, a small restaurant and a disco had been reduced to a pile of broken lumber. All that was recognisable was a couple of broken fridges, some clothing, and a DVD player, oddly intact.
Lampposts had been snapped off their base and tossed aside by the waves. A mattress was draped over a branch ten metres up a tree. On the hill a Chilean flag hung mournfully above the remains of a concrete building.
Carolina Olivares, 21, showed how the waves shattered windows in the concrete-floored house she shares with her family, 30 metres above the sea, while the water poured through the ground floor. It was terrible, she said. �I saw the sea coming and I ran.
Next door, the house of Fidelmira Jaramillo, 55, was even more covered in mud and filth. She began to cry as she remembered those fateful moments shortly before dawn on Saturday. I ran. I watched it come in, and went out, and then it came back again. Now I don�t have anything to eat.
Houses have been reduced to rubble on every street in the town centre. People in dirty clothes wander aimlessly or loiter on corners, some carrying their possessions in plastic bags or plastic crates.
Soldiers in camouflage directed the traffic. Police stood guard by the ruins. Workmen in yellow jackets take rubble down narrow streets in wheelbarrows.
At the police headquarters two looters were dragged in, their arms pinned behind their backs by officers. The atmosphere became tense as police began clearing looters from the URMAX clothing store near by. The looters left sullenly as police shouted, shoved and searched their bags.
There was looting here on Saturday, Alex Vergara, an officer, said. We came and took people out. We arrested 12 looters.
Two police on horseback arrived as the store was emptied.
On the other side of the street a grille had been opened at the Mayorista supermarket, and even as one store was being cleared of looters, another was being sneakily invaded.
The town gymnasium has been turned into a morgue, with the body bags lined up on the basketball court. The broken, bloody corpse of an old woman, twisted in the agony of her death, was covered with a blanket, yet to be bagged.
Relatives were brought in to identify victims by government officials in white plastic suits and face masks. Others queued by the metal gate guarded by police.
We have 103 bodies, said Lieutenant H. Casas-Corderos, but we expect to find more.
In the gym's car park a sombre crowd has gathered in front of a white plastic board on which the names of identified victims are written.
Claudia Toledo, 22, sat on a wall with her aunt Mar�a Becerra Chamorro, 64. She was sleeping at her boyfriend�s house when the earthquake struck and she ran into the street. Her parents' house was completely destroyed.
�I lost everything,� she said. My father and mother are both dead.
Paula Lara, 38, arrived and tearfully embraced Claudia. Her family were on Canc�n Island, just off the coast, but they survived, she said, by hanging on to trees. Her apartment block shook heavily and all the crockery was broken.
Rosa Gonz�lez Gacit�a, 30, was in a bar when the tremors began and she recalled chaos and people running. She said that her friend Hugo was by the river when the water arrived. He clung on to a tree when the first wave hit. He was swimming for safety, she said, when the second wave came but managed to save himself.
A fire engine passed, sirens screaming. A fire had broken out at a paper mill. People waited expectantly behind the railings of a supermarket as food was handed out.
Others queued to get water from a tanker, grumbling about the Government�s slow response to the national tragedy. Santiago is not worried about us. The politicians don�t care, Mario Rocha shouted as he loaded an old metal trolley with plastic bottles of water.
Many sleep in tents on the edge of town. Petrol is scarce. Drivers push their cars in the huge queues at each petrol station. There is no electricity or running water. The highway into Constituci�n is rutted with cracks and holes.
In the town�s picturesque, leafy main square, the fa�ade of an ornate church had fallen down, exposing its brickwork. Elvis Ram�rez, who worked in the paper mill before the earthquake struck, sat on a bench in boots, jeans and a cheap, green nylon jacket.
When the ground began to shake at 3.45am on Saturday morning, he ran out of his three-storey apartment building as fast as he could. He was lucky � he was on the ground floor. His wife and grandmother were not. They were killed when the second and third storeys fell as the building collapsed. He had lost everything and was staying with friends.
Mr Ram�rez had no idea what he was going to do next. Survive, he shrugged.
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