PWA Star Klas Voget writes from Chile on the terrifying ordeal during the Chile earthquake. As in the posts yesterday, please donate what you can via the Charity link below set up by David Swift and pass it on to your friends, family and contacts via mail, social media and word-of-mouth. It's critical that people get help and also that windsurfing plays a part in rebuilding the welcoming community at one of it's most exciting destinations. Thanks. Over to Klaas:
We are all right, in Santiago since Sunday night. The earthquake was absolutely frightening. I was alone in a house in Matanzas that is sitting on quite a steep hill. Victor was arriving at the evening in Santiago and wanted to come down to Matanzas the next morning. Robby Swift and his girlfirend Heidi were in a house 300m away from me. Around 3:30 in the night i woke up, as my bed was sliding around the room and i realized the earthquake. It took me three seconds to have my hand on the doorhandle of the front door, but i had the doors locked.
The house started to shake in all directions like a bull that just wants to throw you off. It was cracking and i heared glass exploding in the living room. From second to second it got stronger and stronger while i was hecticly trying to stick the right key into the lock of the shaking door in the darkness. There was a moment when i realized that this could be the end, as a concrete wall of the house broke and a part of the houses structure got disconnected and was flapping and hitting the side of the house. The power of this earthquake was just unbelieveble. Afer a minute i managed to unlock the door and flew out onto the road, shivering from the adrenaline...
I ran over to Robby and Heidi who were also outside their house with the eyes and mouth wide open. From the village down in the bay we heared people screaming and saw cars coming up the hill. Just a minute later we saw the wave going through the bay in the moonlight. It was a mass of whitewater that didn't even look that scary from the hill, but a little later people came running up the hill under shock with wet clothing that was ripped and injuries in their faces. There was no electricity and no reception for the cellphone. With the first light we saw the destruction. The wave destroyed some of the buildings in the bay completely.
Cars got washed out to sea and the mainraod is just covered with black sand and all kind of things from the houses. The road going north is blocked by a huge landslide. The water went out of the bay and filled up again a few times during the day. Also we had around 100 more or less strong aftershocks during the next day and night making it impossible for us to rest or sleep. Every time the houses started cracking and moving in unpredictable directions... A lot of the people slept outside or in tents the next nights. Sunday in the morning also the watersupply broke down and we decided to make our way to Santiago to get water, food, petrol and a power generator for us and the people of Matanzas.
Lots of the bridges are down, which turned the drive to Santiago into a longer journey, as we couldn't take the usual route. Santiago seems to be less affected be the earthquake, but also Victor reported us from his scary experience in the 6th floor of a 22-stories building and a huge panic everywhere. Today we'll drive back to Matanzas to bring water, help with the cleanup and start fixing the houses...
Robbys brother David has set up a donation account to help to rebuild the infrastructure for the friendly local people of Matanzas. We hope the windsurf world can help to give something back to the warm welcome the windsurfers from around the world always experience by the locals here.
Here the link: http://www.justgiving.com/ChileEarthquakeResponse
We hope water and electricity will be back soon.
Best regards from Chile,
Klaas
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