Chile's disastrous earthquake in 2010

---

I left the hostel as soon as possible after breakfast, relieved to be in one piece and have all my luggage with me. It was easy and cheap to get back to Santiago, only about one and a half hours by bus. The very interesting conversation that I had with the taxi driver in Valparaiso gave me thinking material for the entire bus journey.

He told me all about the very unexpected and destructive earthquake in 2010 which had its epicentre in Concepcion and then created a tsunami which killed 300 people mainly in the South of Chile. It was unexpected because they hadn’t had a big earhquake in 50 years or so. He explained that earthquakes can’t be predicted but tsunamis can. When an earthquake happens in the ocean, it is expected that a tsunami would follow. The USA had sent the Chilean authorities a message in English to warn them about the tsunami, instructing them to sound the alarm bells and evacuate people as a tsunami was on its’ way but the workers on duty that evening didn’t speak English so didn’t understand the message. People on the lowlands and coast didn’t have time to escape. According to the taxi driver and many others who have mentioned this, it completely destroyed Chile.

Everywhere I’ve been so far in Chile I've notice buildings damaged by this earthquake. Before I came to Chile I had no idea that earthquakes couldn’t be predicted, I presumed that in a developed country there would be a calm step by step procedure to follow, and warnings would be given days before to evacuate the buildings. No wonder Chileans by nature seem nervous people and that people tend to travel in twos. I haven’t felt in danger walking to places alone when other people have been around, but I now understand that it’s not as simple as in Europe , if you are walking there are always risks of complications resulting from earthquakes like landslides in the mountains, tsunamis on the coasts and buildings falling down in the city centre.

The taxi driver asked me where I was from like everybody here does and when I answered he began telling me about how much he’d like to visit the Queen and Buckingham Palace and see such an old country steeped in tradition with intact buildings such as castles and monasteries left undamaged by earthquakes. I was then reminded of how lucky we are in Europe for generally not having to worry about tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanos or hurricanes. Almost every other continent has these problems and in many cases their historical buildings and old infrastructure have been destroyed. People here must think Europe is heaven, not having to worry about those problems. Just think whilst we europeans are walking about on steady earth, reasonably carefree, on practically every other continent people are walking wondering when it will be game over for them, due to a natural disaster.

Chileans seem cautious and very law-abiding regarding transport. I noticed on the bus journey how the current speed limit was always shown and a message is displayed saying that if you see the driver going over the speed limit go and speak to him, say ‘Excuse me Mr Driver, please slow down, this does not conform to the law set out by the Ministry of Transport’ you then should go back to your seat and call a number to dob him in stating the place on the road he was speeding and the number of the bus. On the subway there are an endless amount of security warnings encouraging people to call numbers if they see something suspicious. I suppose their idea is to try and prevent what accidents they can prevent, however small the accident, to make up for the fact that they can’t prevent earthquakes and that their destiny is governed by a rumbling earth which can break apart at anytime.

---