On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 06:09:25PM +0000, corvid wrote:
Johannes wrote:
On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 02:19:07PM -0300, Jorge Arellano Cid wrote:
Hi,
Just in case you hear/read something related to the earthquake in Chile, it was stronger than the one in 1985, but we're OK and although we're in the central part of the country, it is roughly 400 Km. north from the more affected area.
You'll see impressive images, but that's not the main part, it's just a "front page" photo impact. This country is full of quake-resistant buildings, and usually the ones that collapse are the oldest ones or the new structures were people decided to steal money (as with the elevated highways).
The situation is complex but under control.
It's good to hear that you are ok!
Yes indeed!
I was reading about how impressively well-built the area is for withstanding earthquakes.
True. It is impressive how Santiago (capital, where I live) resisted the strong earthquake. There're thousands of buildings (7.5 million pp. live here), and just a few are down. This includes lots of buildings above 20 stories and some towers with 50 or more. The subway net is operating almost 100% today. Unfortunately in the southern part of the country, close to the shore, it was tragic. After the earthquake tsunamis came, and devastation in small towns is total. The rural zone is sparsely populated, and people know by experience it's better to go to the hills just in case the sea comes back with huge waves (as we also know that earthquakes in Japan mean large waves in 12 or 24 hours). I hope these facts help the final number of dead people to be under 3000. Currently the official number is around 500, but the situation is not fully evaluated and there are isolated zones still. -- Cheers Jorge.-