Shocked and shaken
30.04.2010
Noon on March 11, 2010 in the Chilean Congress building in the city of Valparaiso, 120kms from Santiago on the coast, there was a ‘change of mandate’ ceremony where the outgoing President Michelle Bachelet and her government handed over power to the new incoming President of Chile, Sebastian Piñera and his government.
Eleven minutes before the ceremony was due to begin at 11:49am, a strong aftershock of 7.2 on the Richter scale was felt whose epicentre was at Rancagua 100kms south of Santiago. This was followed by another strong aftershock at 11:55am of 6.9 on the Richter Scale. Four minutes later there was a third aftershock of 6.1 and 20 minutes later a fourth aftershock of 4.2.
The ceremony in the Congress building had to be cut short and the building evacuated quickly. The large crowd gathered at the beginning of the ceremony disappeared to the hills as the new president and dignitaries came out of the building. The Congress building is only several hundred metres from the coastline.
All afternoon we had many aftershocks including one at 4:28pm of 5.8 on the Richter scale. Like many people, I began to wonder whether the furniture was shaking again or was I imagining it?
Immediately after these big aftershocks, the Chilean Government Emergency Service that monitors earthquake and tsunamis, issued a tsunami warning for 1500kms of Chilean coast from Coquimbo 450kms north of Santiago to Puerto Mont 1000kms south of Santiago. Later in the afternoon, the Tsunami Alert was lifted but before it was, tens of thousands of terrified people from along the coast had fled to the higher ground in panic, crying and screaming. Schools in low lying coastal areas were closed and evacuated.
The city centre of Valparaiso had to be evacuated as did all the other low lying areas of coastal cities and towns. In coastal towns police helped to evacuate the remaining population, especially children, the elderly and handicapped up into the hills in case a tsunami occurred.
How are we Columbans and other priests and lay workers coping with all of this? We have been advised by psychologists working for the Catholic Church to attend to our own fears
and anxieties before trying to help anyone else. We need to acknowledge and express our fears and anxieties before the lack of control one feels in an earthquake.
What many of us are doing in our parishes is to begin our meetings by giving people an opportunity to express their fears. Many of the parents in evening parish meetings tell me that small children are too frightened to sleep alone and want to sleep with their parents or at least with the lights on. Some children are too frightened to go to school. I have noticed a number of children coming to our evening meetings this week, because they are too afraid to stay at home.
Some parents are looking for a different kindergarten or school for their children because the previous buildings do not look secure to them. As a result of the earthquake and aftershocks, other people I know start to get feelings of panic inside buildings and become very nervous if one closes a door with them inside.
One young man who was visiting his elderly parents south of Santiago when the big earthquake came and severely damaged their home, told me that for the first few hours afterwards, he did everything possible in a strong manner to help his parents and neighbours get settled and calm and find shelter. Once that had happened, he started shaking uncontrollably and vomiting. He was suffering post traumatic stress.
Here in the Columban Centre House in Santiago, Columbans and staff all ran out into the garden area for the first aftershock and then again five minutes later for the second powerful aftershock. We were quite frightened and anxious as the buildings and the ground shook around us.
What frightens me is the fact that I don’t know whether or not the earthquake I am experiencing will get much more powerful and dangerous and when it will finish. The telephone system broke down from everyone trying to make calls to loved ones. That’s how we are at present.
Fr Dan Harding has worked in Chile since 1991.
