Concepcion

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Concepcion was the largest city hit hard by the 8.8 earthquake which struck back in Feb 28th. I was fortunate enough to visit and tour Concepcion as well as the surrounding areas.

I distinctly remember the night when the earthquake hit; I was home in bed, watching CNN(what are the chances of that?) A news ticker on the bottom of the TV read "Earthquake hits Southern Chile" I Immediately tried getting more information from Chilean websites but none worked. I tried calling my family, but the lines were down. At that moment, Chile did not exist. All modes of communication were down(except for facebook and twitter of course).

Wednesday we toured a neighboring city called Dichato which was hit hard by the earthquake. Dichato, which was once a quaint, quiet, hiddem gem, turned into a bare and desolate town. Homes were stripped bare, cars were crushed like cans, and concrete looked like hardened bent play doh. There was an eery feeling walking the streets. All I could hear were the small waves hitting the shore. Imagine going to your favorite beach city and finding nothing but concrete slabs and hearing nothing but the waves hitting the shore. Very creepy. Dichato will never be the same - the residents will forever fear the ocean and the beach front properties will never be like what they once were.

Thursday morning we toured Concepcion by foot. I visited the building that fell over on its side. It was one of the sites that I remember vividly after the earthquake it. Rescuers had to break the concrete of the building to reach the residents. It was the only building in Concepcion that suffered heavy damage. I saw a number of other high-rise buildings that sustained heavy damage. All were evacuated and are now sitting vacant. Although they are uninhabitable, they withstood the quake and saved lives.

The three days I spent in Concepcion were amazing. The city is way too big to cover in just three days. The flight back to Santiago was just under an hour. Hopefully I can visit again one day.

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