"We all are fine after the really big earthquake. Measured about 8.0 here in Villarrica. Scary night with lots of aftershocks. No power and spotty cell se..."
Even though it was cut off in midword, that brief text message brought a great sense of relief Saturday morning when it told us our son and his family were safe after a catastrophic earthquake hit Chile in the middle of the night.
We had been monitoring the cable TV news channels since about 3 a.m. Saturday morning. For some reason, my wife, Lois, awakened and was flipping through the channels when she saw the first reports of the quake. She woke me up and we both watched with growing apprehension the reports of the widespread devastation.
Our son, Andy, his wife and their two children are in southern Chile, maybe 250 miles from the epicenter of the quake. My daughter-in-law, Daniella, is Chilean and they were vacationing with her parents near the town of Villarrica.
I tried to call Andy on his cell phone right after learning of the quake, but ended up with his voice message. It was about five hours later that I noticed the message light blinking on my cell phone and retrieved the above text message. Details were lacking, but at least we knew they were alive and uninjured.
Andy tried several times to send another text message, but it wouldn't connect with our cell provider. But for some reason he was able to connect with a childhood friend, Ric Cochrane, in the Seattle area. Twice during the day Ric called us to provide updates and reassure us all was well.
Andy was finally able to call us Sunday morning and provide more details.
The family was asleep in the two-story wooden home they were renting on the shores of Lake Villarrica. Just after 3:30 a.m., the house began to shake. Our 18-month-old grandson, Ryan, was sleeping in the same room as his parents and Daniella grabbed him and ran for the back yard. Andy ran upstairs to find our granddaughter, Stella, 5, who was with her Chilean grandparents.
"It felt like standing in a boat when a big boat goes by and the wake hits you," Andy said Sunday morning. "The house was rolling and creaking." Two large bells, hung on the side of the house outside their bedroom, clanged wildly as the walls shook. The shaking went on for about two minutes.
They and Daniella's parents, Samuel and Ximena, made it out of the house and stayed on the lawn until the major shock ended. One major aftershock, rated higher than 6.0, also hit, but they also were able to ride that out.
When it was light enough to see, Andy and Samuel, both engineers, did a quick inspection of the house. It escaped without any structural damage but windows were tossed open and various items thrown to the floor.
I had no trouble picturing the scene because I was with Andy and the family until Wednesday afternoon when I flew home via Santiago, Chile's capital. I had joined Andy for some fishing in Chilean Patagonia and then we traveled to Villarricca to spend several days with the family in what's known as the Lake District.
As this is written Monday afternoon, I'm not sure how my family will make it out of Villarricca. Andy was supposed to fly home today, but airports remain closed throughout the southern part of the country. His in-laws left Monday to try to drive from Villarricca to Santiago, which is eight hours under good conditions. With a number of bridges and overpasses flattened, it's difficult to say how long it might take. Andy, Daniella and the kids will wait to see if the airports open and, if not, will try to drive to Santiago, though fuel availability is questionable.
Obviously the good news is that all survived and they, no doubt, will eventually make it back to this country. But I still grieve for all those folks who lost family members and the hundreds of thousands who are dealing with badly damaged or destroyed homes.
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Emerson may be contacted at pemerson@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2269.
