Hi everyone,
Kathy and I both left Chile last Saturday night, just before the country-wide power outage. Kathy went to Florida to visit her father and I made my way safely back to Bow, here in WA. So we are both safe now.
I would like to thank all of you for your messages and support during this unique trip south. We appreciated it very much.
The ground was still shaking when we left the airport in Santiago. We experienced aftershocks every day we were there. Another heavy quake apparently hit Concepcion two days ago. I was told today that GPS measurements indicate that the city is now ten feet further west than it was prior to the quake.
The airport was another unusual experience. Due to the roof of the building failing, passengers are routed to a series of outdoor tents to check in and deliver their bags. From there everyone enters one relatively undamaged concourse and awaits their bus out to their respective planes. One agent I talked with says they don't expect to be back to normal for another month. The scanners are also offline so Kathy had to go through a physical pat-down before boarding, so back to the old ways.
Back in the US, I visited Summit Bank in Burlington yesterday. They have been truly wonderful in helping out with the relief fund that we started and Jim Bishop, bank president, deserves alot of thanks for assisting us so gladly with this effort. To date, we have raised over $3,000 for the relief effort.
We have set up a means of wiring the funds to the fishermens coop through an influential friend in Chile, a prominent businessman, and will be doing so this week.
The road is open again to the beach and they are all working hard to get back up and running to provide fish to Santiago. We have heard that in some areas, the price of fish has jumped by a factor of ten since the quake, so you can imagine how important it is to get them back on their feet.
Thank you all for your generous support for the Chilean people. What you have done is truly wonderful.
16 March, 2010
11 March, 2010
Latest from Chile...Trapping in the Tsunami Zone
After our last post, Kathy and I put together some supplies for our friends at Putu and drove them on down to the coast. Stuff like boxes of food, bottled water, matches, tp, paper towels, bleach, dish soap and anything else we could think of and grab at the supermarket.
The drive takes about 5-6 hours, longer if the detours are bad. Some of the major overpasses are still down on the freeway so it takes awhile. We went south on a Saturday morning and were amazed to see the number of trucks and cars packed solid with supplies. The people are really pulling together and it is a sight to see. Their motto is "Chile Helping Chile" and they truly are. It is inspiring to see. Chilean flags are draped everywhere, office buildings, houses, trucks, roofs of cars and we see the words "Fuerza Chile" painted on many, many car and truck windows. People are hanging out the windows of their cars waving and shouting and cheering in support of their country. Great energy.
Along the road to the coast from Curico, there was literally a convoy of vehicles all heading down to one of the worst hit areas in Chile, Putu and Constitucion. Fifteen or so cars and trucks rolled down the road along with Lula Belle. We felt priveleged to be part of this spirit.
Police are now everywhere in the worst areas, helping out and keeping everything in order. Good to see them there. Most of the breaks in the roads and drops at the bridges have been repaired so travel went well.
As we pulled past Pauls place, we saw that the road was still under water and not fixed so we went down to the next access road into the dunes and camped at our friend, Carmens, property.
As we arrived, there was a pick-up truck with 4 young Chileans, two men and two women, from Santiago in the driveway. We asked if they were relatives of Carmen and they explained that they had just driven down from the city and were handing out supplies to the people because they had heard how bad Putu had been hit by the quake. So they just drove in and dropped off a bunch of stuff. Their truck was still packed. Amazing people here, helpful in times of need and so generous. We were seeing the very best in people and it was deeply moving.
After delivering our stuff to Paul, we focused on trapping falcons for the next several days. We began by driving the four wheeler out onto the dunes of Putu, our study area for the last three years. And, by the way, the bike did just great after its jouney through the waves. Totally amazed me.
We found that the area we knew so well had been changed tremendously by the waves. In the past, we had always worked an area of dunes extending about 12 miles north along the coastline. We divided it into four areas, the main high dunes at the south end, an intermediate area just north of Pauls, a wide dune area by La Trinchera and a long sand spit extending north to the town of La Pesca (almost wiped out by the waves). These areas were so large that a person could not cover them all in a day, so we trapped them in sections.
But what we discovered now was that we were limited to the small area of dunes to the south only. We could get to the intermediate area but it had low dunes and was totally devastated by the tsunamis. The dunes were largely gone, the area was riven with small valleys caused by the flow of water in and out of the dunes and the resulting flats were covered with everything one can imagine, downed pines, sea vegetation, nets, ropes, lumber, garbage and plastic. In short, it ws untrappable. Plus there was always the niggling thought that you were quite literally exposed to the sea out there. There was no place to run to avoid another tsunami if you were unlucky enough to get caught out there during another quake. We also realized that in a way we were lucky the quake happened when it did at 3 in the morning. Had one of us been out there trapping when it hit, that person would definitely not have made it to high ground.
So we drove north to try for the La Trinchera entry. This was one of our most productive dune areas. But, again, the waves had quite literally swept across the entry point and this was where our friends restaurant had been completely swept off its foundations. And I mean completely.
We drove in as far as we could and found that a new sea water channel had been ripped through the area. Kathy waded across at low tide to check it out and found that the entire beach was completely gone. There was literally no beach to drive on, just a steep gravel wall getting constantly hit by waves. So we lost our access to the dunes here too. The rest of the area was all fenced off for cattle and we thought better of cutting some farmers wire just to gain access. Could not do that.
The last area, the narrow sand spit extending north from the Trinchera dunes was simply gone now. There were a couple of sand islands that made it through but they were well out in the water offshore of the mainland and inaccessible now. This was Island Girls area and we have seen today from Dons update that her behavior has changed as we expected. Much of her normal winter range has been eliminated. It exists no longer. It also looks like she got spooked by the quake and went inland. Check out her map.
So we were limited to the south end and but it is still a great place. We did find that many of the fore-dunes right on the coast which had been so typical of the area were now gone. Thirty and forty foot dunes swept away by the sea. Open flats now existed where before we had ridden the bike along the crests of the dunes. Huge valleys had been created by the flows, many extending well back into the dune system. We found new sea water ponds in many new and unexpected areas. We observed hundreds and hundreds of dead stranded fish strewn across the new flats.
I think that one of the things that I find most incomprehensible about the tsunami event was the sheer volume of sea water that was involved. It was more massive than we can describe, or even realize and comprehend.
We had begun trapping in this area two days before the quake and I had found some survey flags on the highest dune to the south. I estimated the height of this dune at around sixty feet. It was a great vantage point. When I returned after the "terremoto", the flags had been washed off the dune completely. I dont think the wave was sixty feet high but the momentum of the water combined with a long slope raised the water to that height. I heard later that there was evidence further south of the wave reaching ninety feet in some areas. Now I can understand why.
Anyway, Kathy and I both spent the next 4 days trapping. I managed to catch a beautiful little male cassini peregrine right outside of camp but he was a local peregrine. So we could not tag him.
And every day, we experienced a series of aftershocks rocking the ground. They often occurred several times in an hour. And you are always wondering if this is going to be another big one. So we always had the truck pointed out the road in the direction of the hills again.
We did see two adult tundra falcons almost daily quite near camp. The female had a unique gray head, pure white front and a gray back typical of tindrius. But although we threw for these two birds at least five times, they would just not respond in any way to our traps. So we have been unable to tag any birds under these circumstnces.
We did find that they came in most mornings to sit on the dune fronts and sun themselves. We also found that they killed fairly large prey species well out in the dunes where there was no cover. We found a Coot, Shoveler, and Cattle Egret, all with the notched sternums and severed heads so typical of peregrine kills.
But that was all we caught. And thus ends the Southern Cross Peregrine Project, caught in the cross hairs of a natural disaster almost beyond comprehension.
We often had the police come by the camp on their way out to the beach. It turns out that the majority of people that died in Chile during this event were killed by the waves at Constitucion, about 15 miles south of us. There had been a festival there that weekend and over 500 people we were told had been camping on an island in the mouth of the river and right across from town. When the waves hit, they were all stranded there with no way to escape. So due to the most unfortunate of timing, many, many people, men, women and children, lost their lives there, just an extraordinarily tragic twist of fate.
With the northern current flow, you can imagine what the result was. And that was where we were trapping. So this put an extra spin on things for us and we decided to leave after four days and return to Santiago where we are now trying to ship our truck back home.
Today, as we visited the shipping office in downtown Santiago near the American Embassy, there was another series of aftershocks. But these were Chilean sized aftershocks, magnitude 7.1. Two solid hard ones. One of them went on for over two minutes in a low rumbling fashion. Hundreds of people were streaming out of the office buildings going for the relative safety of the open parkways. Many were looking up at swaying buildings and light poles. We noticed some were laughing but a few were truly terrified. Several of the women were crying.
Awhile later, we hiked up the sixteen floors via the stairways as the elevators have been out since the oiriginal quake. Strenuous. We could not go to the coast where the containers are because of another tsunami warning. Such are the difficulties of working here in Chile at this time. Hopefully we can resolve all of this before too long. Kathy heads home Saturday evening. I hope to leave as soon as possible.
As I sit here, typing this, we are having another aftershock and the computer monitor is swaying back and forth here in the Internet shop on Avenida Republica.......
The drive takes about 5-6 hours, longer if the detours are bad. Some of the major overpasses are still down on the freeway so it takes awhile. We went south on a Saturday morning and were amazed to see the number of trucks and cars packed solid with supplies. The people are really pulling together and it is a sight to see. Their motto is "Chile Helping Chile" and they truly are. It is inspiring to see. Chilean flags are draped everywhere, office buildings, houses, trucks, roofs of cars and we see the words "Fuerza Chile" painted on many, many car and truck windows. People are hanging out the windows of their cars waving and shouting and cheering in support of their country. Great energy.
Along the road to the coast from Curico, there was literally a convoy of vehicles all heading down to one of the worst hit areas in Chile, Putu and Constitucion. Fifteen or so cars and trucks rolled down the road along with Lula Belle. We felt priveleged to be part of this spirit.
Police are now everywhere in the worst areas, helping out and keeping everything in order. Good to see them there. Most of the breaks in the roads and drops at the bridges have been repaired so travel went well.
As we pulled past Pauls place, we saw that the road was still under water and not fixed so we went down to the next access road into the dunes and camped at our friend, Carmens, property.
As we arrived, there was a pick-up truck with 4 young Chileans, two men and two women, from Santiago in the driveway. We asked if they were relatives of Carmen and they explained that they had just driven down from the city and were handing out supplies to the people because they had heard how bad Putu had been hit by the quake. So they just drove in and dropped off a bunch of stuff. Their truck was still packed. Amazing people here, helpful in times of need and so generous. We were seeing the very best in people and it was deeply moving.
After delivering our stuff to Paul, we focused on trapping falcons for the next several days. We began by driving the four wheeler out onto the dunes of Putu, our study area for the last three years. And, by the way, the bike did just great after its jouney through the waves. Totally amazed me.
We found that the area we knew so well had been changed tremendously by the waves. In the past, we had always worked an area of dunes extending about 12 miles north along the coastline. We divided it into four areas, the main high dunes at the south end, an intermediate area just north of Pauls, a wide dune area by La Trinchera and a long sand spit extending north to the town of La Pesca (almost wiped out by the waves). These areas were so large that a person could not cover them all in a day, so we trapped them in sections.
But what we discovered now was that we were limited to the small area of dunes to the south only. We could get to the intermediate area but it had low dunes and was totally devastated by the tsunamis. The dunes were largely gone, the area was riven with small valleys caused by the flow of water in and out of the dunes and the resulting flats were covered with everything one can imagine, downed pines, sea vegetation, nets, ropes, lumber, garbage and plastic. In short, it ws untrappable. Plus there was always the niggling thought that you were quite literally exposed to the sea out there. There was no place to run to avoid another tsunami if you were unlucky enough to get caught out there during another quake. We also realized that in a way we were lucky the quake happened when it did at 3 in the morning. Had one of us been out there trapping when it hit, that person would definitely not have made it to high ground.
So we drove north to try for the La Trinchera entry. This was one of our most productive dune areas. But, again, the waves had quite literally swept across the entry point and this was where our friends restaurant had been completely swept off its foundations. And I mean completely.
We drove in as far as we could and found that a new sea water channel had been ripped through the area. Kathy waded across at low tide to check it out and found that the entire beach was completely gone. There was literally no beach to drive on, just a steep gravel wall getting constantly hit by waves. So we lost our access to the dunes here too. The rest of the area was all fenced off for cattle and we thought better of cutting some farmers wire just to gain access. Could not do that.
The last area, the narrow sand spit extending north from the Trinchera dunes was simply gone now. There were a couple of sand islands that made it through but they were well out in the water offshore of the mainland and inaccessible now. This was Island Girls area and we have seen today from Dons update that her behavior has changed as we expected. Much of her normal winter range has been eliminated. It exists no longer. It also looks like she got spooked by the quake and went inland. Check out her map.
So we were limited to the south end and but it is still a great place. We did find that many of the fore-dunes right on the coast which had been so typical of the area were now gone. Thirty and forty foot dunes swept away by the sea. Open flats now existed where before we had ridden the bike along the crests of the dunes. Huge valleys had been created by the flows, many extending well back into the dune system. We found new sea water ponds in many new and unexpected areas. We observed hundreds and hundreds of dead stranded fish strewn across the new flats.
I think that one of the things that I find most incomprehensible about the tsunami event was the sheer volume of sea water that was involved. It was more massive than we can describe, or even realize and comprehend.
We had begun trapping in this area two days before the quake and I had found some survey flags on the highest dune to the south. I estimated the height of this dune at around sixty feet. It was a great vantage point. When I returned after the "terremoto", the flags had been washed off the dune completely. I dont think the wave was sixty feet high but the momentum of the water combined with a long slope raised the water to that height. I heard later that there was evidence further south of the wave reaching ninety feet in some areas. Now I can understand why.
Anyway, Kathy and I both spent the next 4 days trapping. I managed to catch a beautiful little male cassini peregrine right outside of camp but he was a local peregrine. So we could not tag him.
And every day, we experienced a series of aftershocks rocking the ground. They often occurred several times in an hour. And you are always wondering if this is going to be another big one. So we always had the truck pointed out the road in the direction of the hills again.
We did see two adult tundra falcons almost daily quite near camp. The female had a unique gray head, pure white front and a gray back typical of tindrius. But although we threw for these two birds at least five times, they would just not respond in any way to our traps. So we have been unable to tag any birds under these circumstnces.
We did find that they came in most mornings to sit on the dune fronts and sun themselves. We also found that they killed fairly large prey species well out in the dunes where there was no cover. We found a Coot, Shoveler, and Cattle Egret, all with the notched sternums and severed heads so typical of peregrine kills.
But that was all we caught. And thus ends the Southern Cross Peregrine Project, caught in the cross hairs of a natural disaster almost beyond comprehension.
We often had the police come by the camp on their way out to the beach. It turns out that the majority of people that died in Chile during this event were killed by the waves at Constitucion, about 15 miles south of us. There had been a festival there that weekend and over 500 people we were told had been camping on an island in the mouth of the river and right across from town. When the waves hit, they were all stranded there with no way to escape. So due to the most unfortunate of timing, many, many people, men, women and children, lost their lives there, just an extraordinarily tragic twist of fate.
With the northern current flow, you can imagine what the result was. And that was where we were trapping. So this put an extra spin on things for us and we decided to leave after four days and return to Santiago where we are now trying to ship our truck back home.
Today, as we visited the shipping office in downtown Santiago near the American Embassy, there was another series of aftershocks. But these were Chilean sized aftershocks, magnitude 7.1. Two solid hard ones. One of them went on for over two minutes in a low rumbling fashion. Hundreds of people were streaming out of the office buildings going for the relative safety of the open parkways. Many were looking up at swaying buildings and light poles. We noticed some were laughing but a few were truly terrified. Several of the women were crying.
Awhile later, we hiked up the sixteen floors via the stairways as the elevators have been out since the oiriginal quake. Strenuous. We could not go to the coast where the containers are because of another tsunami warning. Such are the difficulties of working here in Chile at this time. Hopefully we can resolve all of this before too long. Kathy heads home Saturday evening. I hope to leave as soon as possible.
As I sit here, typing this, we are having another aftershock and the computer monitor is swaying back and forth here in the Internet shop on Avenida Republica.......
04 March, 2010
More from Chile
Yesterday we were finally able to get our four wheeler Honda repaired here in Santiago. After getting caught by the tsunami and rolled inland for about a quarter of a mile, it only needed a carburetor cleaning, oil change and a new headlight. Gotta say these Honda bikes are TOUGH!!
This means we are back in business if we are able to trap again. But with all of the devastation, it is really difficult to focus on trapping.
We are in touch with Paul at Putu and he is busy today delivering supplies to the coastal towns of La Pesca and Iloca to the north of Putu. Both are right on the coast and both were hit hard.
So not only are many buildings down or damaged substantially (especially most of the older adobe buildings) as a result of the immense shaking and rocking but then the people living there also got hit with not just one but several huge tsunamis.
For example, we could tell from the water marks on our previous "rooms" at Pauls that there were at least 8 really good solid waves that came in. Different reports say the second or the third wave was the worst...we really don´t know. It all happened in the dark.
Add to all of this devastation a scarcity of fresh water, food, gas and finally diesel (to operate heavy equipment) and you get an idea of the desperation of the situation.
Santiago is getting back to normal. We came here last Sunday after the tsunami because Steve Gibby had to get back to shoot a Heart concert in Seattle tomorrow night. Professional engagement. And he has quite a story to tell on that one. Airport closed. All flights cancelled. No idea when he could get out. So he had to take an all night bus across the Andes to Buenos Aires, Argentina (22 hours) and fly out of there. Fortunatley, I just talked to him and he made it home to California just in time. So that was our first goal and obligation.
Many more businesses are open here today and most of the electricity is back on. The Metro was always OK even though it is underground. Pretty remarkable.
Most of the damage locally was in the outlying areas. Entire sections of bridges and overpasses are down blocking the main freeways south. One section of the "ring" freeway that circles the town by the airport came down and several cars drove right off of it and out into the open air. Same lesson...drive slowly after an earthquake.
There have been several good aftershocks happening regularly which is usual for a large quake but knowing that doesn´t help much when the bed starts moving in the middle of the night with a 5 or 6 magnitude quake. Unsettling to say the least but the Chileans take it all in stride with their long culture of earthquakes.
We are planning to return to Putu to see what we can do there. We are putting together some supplies to take down in Lula Belle. I have heard that the road out to Pauls is supposed to open today which will allow the fishermen to get back to their launches which are strewn far and wide all over the dunes, some boats over a quarter mile inland. Long fish nets are everywhere.
This entry point (Pauls road) to the coast is where I would estimate over 100 fishermen/women take their boats out to sea to fish for reinita and corvina every day . After being out all night, they bring their boats in and a tractor would drag them up and across the gravel beach. Trucks and buyers would pick up the fresh fish and take them into the world famous fish market in Santiago.
So fishing was an economic mainstay of the area and took place right in front of Pauls hotel and restaurant every day. We used to love to watch and examine the catch. Even saw some Humboldt squid in the catch.
So now the fishermen are faced with getting this whole operation back on its feet again so they can make some money, feed their families and get their house re-built. I can tell you that these are extremely hardworking, tough, salt of the earth people that put all they have into making a living. We have been watching this process every year we have come down and we always marvel at the people involved.
So this morning Kathy and I were trying to figure out what we could do to help, and we came up with the idea of starting a relief fund through the FRG and the Southern Cross Project to get them some help. This started as a result of an e-mail from Katherine Schloemers daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Michael Ritter. Thanks guys. We should have been on this earlier.
So with the help of a satellite phone and the advice of Jim Bishop, President of Summit Bank, 723 Haggen Drive, Burlington WA 98233 (360) 757-0100, we have set up a means of getting money wired directly from the US to Santiago. From there we will be working either with the people directly or through a good friend here in Chile to direct the funds towards the fishermen of Putu.
If you would like to contribute to this fund, please send your donation directly to Summit Bank. All of the funds will be used specifically for the relief effort and nothing else. It is our intent to direct this effort to where it will do the most good, i.e. to help the people of Region 7 of Chile.
Thanks for your help.
Bud Anderson
Kathryn Gunther
PS We are going to try to add some of the pics we got to this blog so you can see what we are talking about.
This means we are back in business if we are able to trap again. But with all of the devastation, it is really difficult to focus on trapping.
We are in touch with Paul at Putu and he is busy today delivering supplies to the coastal towns of La Pesca and Iloca to the north of Putu. Both are right on the coast and both were hit hard.
So not only are many buildings down or damaged substantially (especially most of the older adobe buildings) as a result of the immense shaking and rocking but then the people living there also got hit with not just one but several huge tsunamis.
For example, we could tell from the water marks on our previous "rooms" at Pauls that there were at least 8 really good solid waves that came in. Different reports say the second or the third wave was the worst...we really don´t know. It all happened in the dark.
Add to all of this devastation a scarcity of fresh water, food, gas and finally diesel (to operate heavy equipment) and you get an idea of the desperation of the situation.
Santiago is getting back to normal. We came here last Sunday after the tsunami because Steve Gibby had to get back to shoot a Heart concert in Seattle tomorrow night. Professional engagement. And he has quite a story to tell on that one. Airport closed. All flights cancelled. No idea when he could get out. So he had to take an all night bus across the Andes to Buenos Aires, Argentina (22 hours) and fly out of there. Fortunatley, I just talked to him and he made it home to California just in time. So that was our first goal and obligation.
Many more businesses are open here today and most of the electricity is back on. The Metro was always OK even though it is underground. Pretty remarkable.
Most of the damage locally was in the outlying areas. Entire sections of bridges and overpasses are down blocking the main freeways south. One section of the "ring" freeway that circles the town by the airport came down and several cars drove right off of it and out into the open air. Same lesson...drive slowly after an earthquake.
There have been several good aftershocks happening regularly which is usual for a large quake but knowing that doesn´t help much when the bed starts moving in the middle of the night with a 5 or 6 magnitude quake. Unsettling to say the least but the Chileans take it all in stride with their long culture of earthquakes.
We are planning to return to Putu to see what we can do there. We are putting together some supplies to take down in Lula Belle. I have heard that the road out to Pauls is supposed to open today which will allow the fishermen to get back to their launches which are strewn far and wide all over the dunes, some boats over a quarter mile inland. Long fish nets are everywhere.
This entry point (Pauls road) to the coast is where I would estimate over 100 fishermen/women take their boats out to sea to fish for reinita and corvina every day . After being out all night, they bring their boats in and a tractor would drag them up and across the gravel beach. Trucks and buyers would pick up the fresh fish and take them into the world famous fish market in Santiago.
So fishing was an economic mainstay of the area and took place right in front of Pauls hotel and restaurant every day. We used to love to watch and examine the catch. Even saw some Humboldt squid in the catch.
So now the fishermen are faced with getting this whole operation back on its feet again so they can make some money, feed their families and get their house re-built. I can tell you that these are extremely hardworking, tough, salt of the earth people that put all they have into making a living. We have been watching this process every year we have come down and we always marvel at the people involved.
So this morning Kathy and I were trying to figure out what we could do to help, and we came up with the idea of starting a relief fund through the FRG and the Southern Cross Project to get them some help. This started as a result of an e-mail from Katherine Schloemers daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Michael Ritter. Thanks guys. We should have been on this earlier.
So with the help of a satellite phone and the advice of Jim Bishop, President of Summit Bank, 723 Haggen Drive, Burlington WA 98233 (360) 757-0100, we have set up a means of getting money wired directly from the US to Santiago. From there we will be working either with the people directly or through a good friend here in Chile to direct the funds towards the fishermen of Putu.
If you would like to contribute to this fund, please send your donation directly to Summit Bank. All of the funds will be used specifically for the relief effort and nothing else. It is our intent to direct this effort to where it will do the most good, i.e. to help the people of Region 7 of Chile.
Thanks for your help.
Bud Anderson
Kathryn Gunther
PS We are going to try to add some of the pics we got to this blog so you can see what we are talking about.
03 March, 2010
Latest info from Bud Anderson and the Chilean Quake
OK. Sorry for the delayed response but it has been a pretty intense few days. Thanks for all of your calls and e-mails of support. We appreciate it. Things are just now slowing down enough to write. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
First off, I want to say that although we have experienced some difficulties and stress, it has been nothing compared to the suffering and hardship that the Chilean people are having to endure right now. As I am sure that you all know, the devastation and loss of life is enormous. And our hearts go out to them at this time of difficulty. It is so sad....
So on to the blog. Several of you have asked about our experience so I am going to describe what happened to us, although this is just one of the thousands and thousands of stories, most far more harrowing than ours.
We had driven south all day from Santiago. There were three of us, Kathy Gunther, myself and Steve Gibby, a producer friend from California who was along as an advisor on our RED camera. We had arrived at the Putu dunes a couple of days prior to Saturday and were staying at the beach restautant/hotel of our friend, Paul Paredes and his girlfriend, Jacquelina. We had just started trapping the day before and had seen one peregrine flying over the extensive dunes. On Thursday afternoon, Kathy and I had to drive into the town of Constitucion to finish up on some errands for our colleague, Christian Gonzalez. Little did we know then that this would be one of the locations hit hardest by the tsunami less than 48 hours later. In fact. we have been told that there were more fatalities in Constitucion than at any other single place on the coast. And we were camped about 7 miles north of there, right on the beach. In fact, as luck would have it, we were in one of the two hardest hit locations in Chile.
So, on the morning of the quake, I was sleeping soundly in back of LulaBelle, the project pick-up truck right out back of Pauls cement and log structure. Kathy was asleep in one of the small rooms and Steve was in the other. Both were on the lee side of the building and about 15 feet away from the truck.
Around 0332, the truck started rocking and I woke up, knowing it was an earthquake. I had expereinced these several times before on our previous expeditions and knew exactly what was going on. As I was laying there, assessing the quake to see if I should get up (not really wanting to leave my warm bag), the gentle rocking started to increase in intensity and rapidly got seriously strong. It was like 10 guys were on both sides of the truck rocking it as hard as they could. I sat up and tried to hang on to the side of the truck rail and braced against the roof as the quake went on and on.
About this time, I saw a little white blur outside the truck in the moonlight that turned out to be Kathy rocketing out of the building and bracing against the truck for footing. She eventually grabbed onto the side mirror bracket to keep herself upright. She later said it was like hanging onto a bucking bronco and only her years of expereince on her sailboat kept her on her feet.
What was most remarkable for me was the duration of the quake. It seemed to go on forever and in retrospect, we all indpendently figured it probably lasted about a minute and a half. This seemed like an eternity of course and was much, much longer than any of the 15 or so quakes I have been in before. The ferocity and violence of the shaking was unbeleivable. When it finally started to die down enough where I could crawl out of the truck, I pulled on my pants, grabbed my glasses (thankfully in the same place I left them) and jumped out of the truck to see if Steve was OK. I will be eternally grateful to see that he was. His bed hard been literally jumping up and down on the cement floor of the building and everything was in total disarray all about him but he came out barefoot.
We were really fortunate because the sky was clear and the moon was nearly full, so we had some limited illumination to assist us in reaching each other.
I had Steve grab the camera as I started unlocking the doors for everyone (who locked these anyway?). Paul jumped in his truck and started honking his horn to alert anyone else that might have been there to warn them. And in a gesture that I will never forget, he pulled back out of our way to make sure that we made it out first. We hit it hard and drove down a sand and dirt road heading for the main road about a mile away. We obviously wanted to get to high ground as quickly as possible.
At this time, we had no idea if there actually was a wave and if there was, just how much time we had to escape. I think we all had images of the Indonesia tsunamis in our minds. Paul later said that he had heard the wave coming just before he left. Yesterday, we learned that the wave took 7 to 10 minutes to hit Constitucion. We calculated that we must have taken about 5 minutes to get the trucks going, so in retrospect, it appears that it was a very close call. We have heard that the waves came in at a pretty good speed and overtook people rapidly.
During this entire escape, I was never frightened, just totally fixed on getting everyone out safely and concentrating on driving. However, when I learned just how close it had come on our heels, I had to sit down for a few minutes. Remarkably, that was when the fear hit me,several days later.
Along the road leading away from Paul's, there was a large dune about 18 feet high that was constantly marching across the road. It had always been a major maintenance problem for him. As we got there on our way out, the earthquake had brought down much more sand and we had a very narrow passage but Lula Belle got us through with no problem. If we had not made it through, the wave would have caught us there in the truck with extreme consequences.
Further down at the main road, there were several large wide cracks in the dirt road on either side of the lane which looked pretty bad but we flew over them too and made the main paved and relative safety. We raced up to the town of Putu (never drive fast on roads after an earthquake by the way) and headed up into the hills on a logging road, joining hundreds of people from the town heading for high ground. We stopped in a clearing several miles up where we could see the distant coastline and I swung my scope to look for tsunamis in the moonlight. I could just detect a series of smaller waves arriving at an inlet so we suspected there had been more.
We also heard about the first fatalities. In Putu, at least six people had died from buildings collapsing on them during the quake.
During the time in the hills, there was a nearly constant series of heavy and light aftershocks. The ground was moving and jumping for several hours after the quake and we all craved open ground.
Later, when the sun came up, we went back down to see what had happened during the night. Paul gave Steve a pair of flip-flops as he had lost his shoes and I gave him a t-shirt.
We drove back north along the highway and started to see the effects of the quake. At every road cut, debris had fallen into the road. At every bridge, there were separations between the pavement and structure, some as much as eighteen inches. You had to drive cautiously. We drove to a river mouth and saw that there had been a really big wave that had come through. Learned later there were several. As we rounded a bend in the road, we saw a scene of immense devastation. Whole trees were across the road, steel guard rails were bent like rubber, debris was strewn everywhere, and worst of all, we could see that a mile ahead our friend Juanitas new restaurant and house had been swept completely away and was about a half mile inland We learned later that she was OK. So we began to understand the enormity of the tsunami and started to realize just how bad it was going to be for the wonderful people along this entire coastline where we had been working for the last three years.
We saw evidence of enormous waves, in some places going over 20 feet above the normal sea level. We learned later that some went as high as 30 feet. As we looked out to sea, we saw yet another smaller wave sweeping up the river. This one was only about three feet high and we followed it along the road as it continued up the waterway, studying how it moved and understanding what had happened.
From there, we drove back to Pauls road and met him there. The entry road was now under about 3-4 feet of flowing salt water. So Kathy and I strapped on our packs and forded the stream noticing that there were hundreds of small fish dying from the sudden influx of salt water. We wanted to see what had happened to Pauls place as the dunes blocked it from view from the main road and it was not possible to drive in.
The first evidence of the destruction was a 25 foot fishing skiff laying upright in the road. We then found that the ground had been pretty well scoured by the waves. Further on was a six foot high mass of vegetation blocking the road. In amongst the green was an overturned car. We took to the dunes and arrived at Paul's place. Because of its solid cement construction, it was still standing but all of the windows were gone, all of the tables, chairs, kitchen stove, propane tank, doors and everything else had been swept away. Nearly everything in Steve´s room on the corner was gone, beds, mattresses, and almost all of our camera and computer equipment, clothes and personal gear. We could see from the water marks on the walls that the sea water had gone nearly to the ceilings of the rooms. Shingle damage on the roof showed it had gone about 20 feet up here too. Toilets and sinks had been ripped out of the bathrooms. A brick outbuilding had been torn apart by the water.
And our Honda ATV was nowhere to be seen. Almost miraculously, a Chilean horseman later found it upside down among the vegetation and fishnets and floats about a quarter mile inland. It had been swept into the dunes about 20 feet up, lying upside down by another fishing boat. I cut it out of the nets with a broken beer bottle and two kind Chileans helped me to roll it back upright.Kathy and I pushed it back to the truck across mostly level ground and we winched it across the salt water river to the truck.
As I write this in Santiago now, we are having it worked on to see if we can continue the study and still try to trap a bird or two. And, in fact, I need to go there now and see what they have found. Will try to write more later but lost both the MAC and net book to the tsunami. Oh well....
And finally and most imporatnatly, we send our deepest sympathy to the Chilean people in these trying times.
BUD
First off, I want to say that although we have experienced some difficulties and stress, it has been nothing compared to the suffering and hardship that the Chilean people are having to endure right now. As I am sure that you all know, the devastation and loss of life is enormous. And our hearts go out to them at this time of difficulty. It is so sad....
So on to the blog. Several of you have asked about our experience so I am going to describe what happened to us, although this is just one of the thousands and thousands of stories, most far more harrowing than ours.
We had driven south all day from Santiago. There were three of us, Kathy Gunther, myself and Steve Gibby, a producer friend from California who was along as an advisor on our RED camera. We had arrived at the Putu dunes a couple of days prior to Saturday and were staying at the beach restautant/hotel of our friend, Paul Paredes and his girlfriend, Jacquelina. We had just started trapping the day before and had seen one peregrine flying over the extensive dunes. On Thursday afternoon, Kathy and I had to drive into the town of Constitucion to finish up on some errands for our colleague, Christian Gonzalez. Little did we know then that this would be one of the locations hit hardest by the tsunami less than 48 hours later. In fact. we have been told that there were more fatalities in Constitucion than at any other single place on the coast. And we were camped about 7 miles north of there, right on the beach. In fact, as luck would have it, we were in one of the two hardest hit locations in Chile.
So, on the morning of the quake, I was sleeping soundly in back of LulaBelle, the project pick-up truck right out back of Pauls cement and log structure. Kathy was asleep in one of the small rooms and Steve was in the other. Both were on the lee side of the building and about 15 feet away from the truck.
Around 0332, the truck started rocking and I woke up, knowing it was an earthquake. I had expereinced these several times before on our previous expeditions and knew exactly what was going on. As I was laying there, assessing the quake to see if I should get up (not really wanting to leave my warm bag), the gentle rocking started to increase in intensity and rapidly got seriously strong. It was like 10 guys were on both sides of the truck rocking it as hard as they could. I sat up and tried to hang on to the side of the truck rail and braced against the roof as the quake went on and on.
About this time, I saw a little white blur outside the truck in the moonlight that turned out to be Kathy rocketing out of the building and bracing against the truck for footing. She eventually grabbed onto the side mirror bracket to keep herself upright. She later said it was like hanging onto a bucking bronco and only her years of expereince on her sailboat kept her on her feet.
What was most remarkable for me was the duration of the quake. It seemed to go on forever and in retrospect, we all indpendently figured it probably lasted about a minute and a half. This seemed like an eternity of course and was much, much longer than any of the 15 or so quakes I have been in before. The ferocity and violence of the shaking was unbeleivable. When it finally started to die down enough where I could crawl out of the truck, I pulled on my pants, grabbed my glasses (thankfully in the same place I left them) and jumped out of the truck to see if Steve was OK. I will be eternally grateful to see that he was. His bed hard been literally jumping up and down on the cement floor of the building and everything was in total disarray all about him but he came out barefoot.
We were really fortunate because the sky was clear and the moon was nearly full, so we had some limited illumination to assist us in reaching each other.
I had Steve grab the camera as I started unlocking the doors for everyone (who locked these anyway?). Paul jumped in his truck and started honking his horn to alert anyone else that might have been there to warn them. And in a gesture that I will never forget, he pulled back out of our way to make sure that we made it out first. We hit it hard and drove down a sand and dirt road heading for the main road about a mile away. We obviously wanted to get to high ground as quickly as possible.
At this time, we had no idea if there actually was a wave and if there was, just how much time we had to escape. I think we all had images of the Indonesia tsunamis in our minds. Paul later said that he had heard the wave coming just before he left. Yesterday, we learned that the wave took 7 to 10 minutes to hit Constitucion. We calculated that we must have taken about 5 minutes to get the trucks going, so in retrospect, it appears that it was a very close call. We have heard that the waves came in at a pretty good speed and overtook people rapidly.
During this entire escape, I was never frightened, just totally fixed on getting everyone out safely and concentrating on driving. However, when I learned just how close it had come on our heels, I had to sit down for a few minutes. Remarkably, that was when the fear hit me,several days later.
Along the road leading away from Paul's, there was a large dune about 18 feet high that was constantly marching across the road. It had always been a major maintenance problem for him. As we got there on our way out, the earthquake had brought down much more sand and we had a very narrow passage but Lula Belle got us through with no problem. If we had not made it through, the wave would have caught us there in the truck with extreme consequences.
Further down at the main road, there were several large wide cracks in the dirt road on either side of the lane which looked pretty bad but we flew over them too and made the main paved and relative safety. We raced up to the town of Putu (never drive fast on roads after an earthquake by the way) and headed up into the hills on a logging road, joining hundreds of people from the town heading for high ground. We stopped in a clearing several miles up where we could see the distant coastline and I swung my scope to look for tsunamis in the moonlight. I could just detect a series of smaller waves arriving at an inlet so we suspected there had been more.
We also heard about the first fatalities. In Putu, at least six people had died from buildings collapsing on them during the quake.
During the time in the hills, there was a nearly constant series of heavy and light aftershocks. The ground was moving and jumping for several hours after the quake and we all craved open ground.
Later, when the sun came up, we went back down to see what had happened during the night. Paul gave Steve a pair of flip-flops as he had lost his shoes and I gave him a t-shirt.
We drove back north along the highway and started to see the effects of the quake. At every road cut, debris had fallen into the road. At every bridge, there were separations between the pavement and structure, some as much as eighteen inches. You had to drive cautiously. We drove to a river mouth and saw that there had been a really big wave that had come through. Learned later there were several. As we rounded a bend in the road, we saw a scene of immense devastation. Whole trees were across the road, steel guard rails were bent like rubber, debris was strewn everywhere, and worst of all, we could see that a mile ahead our friend Juanitas new restaurant and house had been swept completely away and was about a half mile inland We learned later that she was OK. So we began to understand the enormity of the tsunami and started to realize just how bad it was going to be for the wonderful people along this entire coastline where we had been working for the last three years.
We saw evidence of enormous waves, in some places going over 20 feet above the normal sea level. We learned later that some went as high as 30 feet. As we looked out to sea, we saw yet another smaller wave sweeping up the river. This one was only about three feet high and we followed it along the road as it continued up the waterway, studying how it moved and understanding what had happened.
From there, we drove back to Pauls road and met him there. The entry road was now under about 3-4 feet of flowing salt water. So Kathy and I strapped on our packs and forded the stream noticing that there were hundreds of small fish dying from the sudden influx of salt water. We wanted to see what had happened to Pauls place as the dunes blocked it from view from the main road and it was not possible to drive in.
The first evidence of the destruction was a 25 foot fishing skiff laying upright in the road. We then found that the ground had been pretty well scoured by the waves. Further on was a six foot high mass of vegetation blocking the road. In amongst the green was an overturned car. We took to the dunes and arrived at Paul's place. Because of its solid cement construction, it was still standing but all of the windows were gone, all of the tables, chairs, kitchen stove, propane tank, doors and everything else had been swept away. Nearly everything in Steve´s room on the corner was gone, beds, mattresses, and almost all of our camera and computer equipment, clothes and personal gear. We could see from the water marks on the walls that the sea water had gone nearly to the ceilings of the rooms. Shingle damage on the roof showed it had gone about 20 feet up here too. Toilets and sinks had been ripped out of the bathrooms. A brick outbuilding had been torn apart by the water.
And our Honda ATV was nowhere to be seen. Almost miraculously, a Chilean horseman later found it upside down among the vegetation and fishnets and floats about a quarter mile inland. It had been swept into the dunes about 20 feet up, lying upside down by another fishing boat. I cut it out of the nets with a broken beer bottle and two kind Chileans helped me to roll it back upright.Kathy and I pushed it back to the truck across mostly level ground and we winched it across the salt water river to the truck.
As I write this in Santiago now, we are having it worked on to see if we can continue the study and still try to trap a bird or two. And, in fact, I need to go there now and see what they have found. Will try to write more later but lost both the MAC and net book to the tsunami. Oh well....
And finally and most imporatnatly, we send our deepest sympathy to the Chilean people in these trying times.
BUD
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