On Feb 27th at 3:30 am, an 8.8 level earthquake shook Chile to the bone. You’ve probably seen the pictures and can just imagine the damage to shaken buildings and tsunami- swept town centers near the ocean and the heart of the quake. My husband, Felipe, is from Linares and Talca in the 7th region of Chile, fifty miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, about four hours south of Santiago. We were just visiting the area this January and places we just went through are now in shambles along with damage to homes of family and friends that we visited.
Felipe’s family is luckily unharmed but scared because of continued intense aftershocks (his parents slept in their car for four nights afterwards, fearing thier house would fall) as well as the stress and heartache of rebuilding structures in a devastated region. Felipe’s grandmother, Aida Baeza’s, home of fourty years in the countryside is collapsed and they are working to rebuild at least a temporary structure for now to protect the remains from looting.
Felipe has set up a Chile Earthquake Relief Fund through Paypal and is accepting donations. All donations will be allocated 50% to Felipe’s family to help rebuild his grandmother home and 50% sent to local disaster relief efforts in that area, active through March 31, 2010. Below are some pictures of his grandmother’s property (before the quake) in January.
