Earthquake!

These photos are on the wall right by Elder D's desk. If you look on the right side of the 12 Apostles, you can see where the desk scraped the photo on it's way down, narrowly missing Elder Anderson's head!

Here is Elder D's desk after he reassembled and FORTIFIED it. Nothing will move it now, not even the next tenant!

These pretty pots were in the apartment when we arrived. I loved them both, but alas they walked right off the tables they were on during the earthquake. I think the red one was probably the source of the loud pop I heard.

Saturday, February 27, 2010, Santiago Chile 3:30 am

I gradually awoke to a rocking bed, heard myself groggily say, "This is an earthquake..." I lay there, still, sensing..."This is an earthquake!" My mind flashed back to the summer of 1960-something when I first felt an earthquake tremor at Teresa Child's (a girlhood friend) family cabin at Hebgen Lake, Wyoming. I reached over and tugged at Clint, "Clint, we're having an earthquake!"
"Huh?" he answered.
"An earthquake, we're having an earthquake!"
"No we're not" he said, "It's a dream, go back to sleep."
"Clint," I said, "Can't you feel the bed moving? THIS IS AN EARTHQUAKE!!" He hesitated a moment then responded, "I think...maybe....you're right!" We lay there as the shaking intensified....Frightening!... I thought, Boy!, I'm sure glad I got all our underwear washed and dried yesterday. I had started the wash early Friday morning before leaving for work because we had a shopping trip planned for early Saturday morning with the B's to go to the Bega. (Senior proselyting missionaries from Texas, Darrell and Darla arrived one week after we did to our mission.) We planned to take the bus and then the metro and meet them at the large, open air feria (market) in central Santiago - one of the best and cheapest places to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables and dry goods, and then we would cross the river to peruse the large fresh fish market. Suddenly, I realized I was hearing breaking glass, shaking and groaning from the walls - my fright was building - I heard more glass - and a big POP! - exploding type sound. The experience rendered us stupefied as we lie in bed. I wondered how much of this unnatural movement the building and our 7th floor apartment could withstand. Particularly unnerving was the groaning sounds. I couldn't hear anyone yelling or screaming - I wondered if we were the only ones on the floor still in bed...............or, maybe everyone had gone...................more glass breaking and awful sounds as the bed rattled and creaked and the walls seemed to be in pain. I said, "What can we do"? Clint ordered, "Get out of bed, "You should have a flashlight in the drawer by your bed - got it?..........got it?" "Yes," I said, "found it." Now we each had a beam of light pointed at the floor. "We're going to stand in the doorway - he barked - can you find it?" "Yes," I said as I braced myself on the wall, as I moved toward the door, watching for objects on the floor ahead. I made it there just after Clint did. He held onto the bedroom door jam and I held on behind him around his waist. It was comforting to hold on to him. Just then the building shook intensely, like a dog grabbing a cat by the neck and shaking to kill. Clint grabbed the door jam with him other hand, as we both were caught off balance and had to replant a foot back on the floor. I was sure everything was going to break apart...it was a prolonged rugged shaking, and the sounds, creaking, straining, grinding, banging, it was awful....I was too terrified to use any energy on a scream, I may have moaned, I constrained myself to die, but prayed to live.

It was all downhill from that horrible wrenching, until finally everything really did stop moving. The quiet made a huge void. I think there's a quote ' "The silence was deafening."

Relieved, I shined my flashlight onto the hall floor, sure enough, there was glass and debris on the carpet. "We better start by putting on our shoes." I said. Clint responded, "Do you know where yours are?"
"Yes." "Can you find yours?"
"Sure."

We slowly made our way around in the dark, and were soon exploring the house, there were no lights. I made my way toward the kitchen to find the broom and dust pan. I looked out the wall of windows in the sun room, adjoining the living room and was relieved to see all the buildings still standing in the night scape. I saw a light here, one there, but as far as I could see there were no twinkling city lights that usually mesmerized me - only darkness all around. Still, it made me feel better to see the buildings still standing around us, perhaps they had faired as well as we had.

As I approached the kitchen, it smelled like I was entering a balsamic vinegar factory. there on the floor was the mostly empty, broken balsamic vinegar bottle, and my flashlight revealed the dark brown liquid dripping down the front of the lower cupboard door. Now that my nose had adjusted to the strong smell, it began to be sweet and pleasant to me. I made my way carefully past the broken bottle, only to find more large chunks of glass; later to find out it was my favorite water pitcher, the one that doubled as a perfect vase for the flowers that Clint often brought me from the plentiful flower vendors on the street. There were some cans of food on the floor that had "walked" off the black tubular shelving. I found the broom and gingerly walked past the mess again to start on the hallway, the main traffic area.

I made my way back to the kitchen, where I guardedly picked up large pieces of glass and then swept. Happily the garbage can was empty; Clint had taken it out the night before. Bless him! Then I started putting the dozen or so herb and spice bottles that weren't broken back in the cupboard. I have a new respect for plastic bottles! In the middle of all this activity, I heard Clint say from the back of the apartment, OH NO!! I quickly joined him in his office, where the left side of he desk was kneeling on the floor, and three shelves of books, files, and office supplies had been thrown to the floor. His laptop computer was upside down on the floor (happily he had closed the lid the night before, so it took the fall just fine.) We looked at the mess in unbelief, and I said, "We really should get a photo of this." But Clint's camera which had been stored on one of the desk shelves was buried somewhere in the mess on the floor.

Not long after we had started the clean-up, I heard a knock at the door. I didn't much like answering the door in my pj's, but I did, only to find Elders Perez, Ruff and Mendez in the dark hallway wondering if we were okay. They said, Come out! Come out! We had been experiencing aftershocks, which were extremely disquieting, even unnerving, but were determined to put some order back in the apartment./ Their urgency shocked me into reality. Clint had heard the knock and had entered the living room as well. We both replied okay, and they waited while we found our clothes in the dark.

We followed the Elders into the pitch black hall. Just out the door of our apartment and to the left is the big heavy fireproof door to the stairwell. I was surprised when the Elders headed through the door - why not take the elevator, I thought. About four steps into the first half flight of stairs, it dawned on me - because there is no electricity!

The stairwell zigzags to the bottom level and is open to the outside every half flight via a pony wall. The cool night air felt good. It was a relief to leave the apartment and hopefully see some of our senior missionary friends. When we finally arrived to the entry level, there were several women huddled in the reception area dressed in their night clothes. Their bodies were angled, crunched over and their grim faces looked bedraggled, haggard and tense. They looked at us with no expression. I tried to smile, but was not successful. Out through the front door we saw several groups of people talking quietly out on the street. We talked to some of our friends, compared notes - it was still dark, no street lights or electricity at all. I worried we really weren't in a very safe spot, as power lines are all above ground in this old city and they ran down our narrow, dead end street. The street is also towered over by big old trees. Again, not so safe if they were to break loose out of the soil. Just across from our apartment building is an electric door for the drive-in entry to the church office building parking lot. I thought it would be much safer to be standing in that parking lot, but - again, no electricity.

After not too long, we felt worn out and decided to go back to our room. We walked past the same group of worried women in the reception area, on our way to climb the seven stories of stairs. We were feeling exhausted, decided to go back to bed, since there was no light and no water. We half slept, warrily. Through the early morning hours and the following day we felt aftershocks - tremors. They were nothing like the real earthquake, but they felt just like the start up of the big quake and were unnerving and scary.

We continued to have aftershocks the whole month - and a second quake during the day at the office while Elder D was in the hospital recuperating. We all ran out of the building (being in the basement is scarier than being on the 7th floor.) It was amazing to see the pictures swing side to side at near right angles to the floor. That's the point when I pulled away from the desk and told everybody, "We better get out of here!" I ran to the office next door and told the new doctor and his wife who had just arrived a couple of days before, that this was an earthquake, and we were heading out the nearest door down the hall. They appeared right after us. We learned later that this quake had it's epicenter in Rancagua, where another of the Chile missions is located.

Aftershocks will likely continue, but like I said in our office meeting after the big quake: "I just figured Elder Day and I were old enough to die. So, whatever!!!!!!!"

Happily, we're alive and well, not adjusting to the aftershocks, never will. But life goes on, we have plenty to do and only a little time left to finish our work in Chile.