For the majority of you that won't already know, yesterday (Saturday) there was a seismic tremor (mini earthquake) that provoked a mini tsunami in the region that I live in. The tsunami occurred in Punta Tortuga.....an area on the coast near Puerto Chacabuco (more than an hour by road from Coyhaique, where I live).
Some people live very close to the beach there, there is also a small fishing plant there, plus a group including the Mayor of Puerto Aysen and a TV crew were there visiting to hand over a radio to the community there in order to overcome the possible problems they might have from being isolated during the seismic tremors. Therefore there were people there when the waves (6 meters high) hit the beach a total of 10 people were swept away, and are missing. So far 3 of the bodies have been found dead; the bodies of a middle aged couple and their 2 year old grandson.
As there was a TV crew there at the time there is footage of the dust rising from a landslide on a hill, plus the waves that hit the beach taking some trees with them.
http://www.chilevision.cl/home.html
Although the commentary in is Spanish the images are clear.....here's the link to the CHV website where they currently have 2 videos - just click on them and they'll start playing. (Obviously if you try accessing the site at a later date they might have moved the videos but I would guess that they'll be there for Monday at least...I'll try to keep updating the link)
The first video is of the tsunami, and the second one is of the son of the dead couple, and of people who survived the tsunami.
The tremors here are being caused by volcanic action; there are various volcanoes in the region, and they now believe that it's possible that a new volcano is attempting to emerge, therefore the movement of the magma is creating more seismic activity. It also has an effect on the fault lines around here too. It's not platelet movement though - that's what causes tremors further north, but here it's the fault lines and volcanic action. I'm afraid I know very little about the subject, and really should read up more, so any geologists out there please feel free to properly explain the differences to me, or properly inform other readers of this blog.
In case you're panicking about me....don't. The tremor was 6.2 on the Richter scale, and it lasted about 30-50 seconds. It made the house etc. move here in Coyhaique, and the electricity went out for a while because the centre had problems....but apart from that there was no damage here in Coyhaique. I was in the house with Rodrigo's niece, sitting on the stairs. I just remained there hugging her tight. When it was over her Mum arrived running saying we should move - I said no, as it was over, plus as these houses are made out of wood they move with the tremors so there's not too much danger.....also the doorways aren't necessarily any safer, and outside there are post that could fall on you, so I opt for the staying where I am option.
Rodrigo had to go to Puerto Aysen to see whether the workers in the fishing plant that his company does the health and safety for were OK. All of them were fine - they followed the emergency plan that they had made when the tremors first started at the end of January, so they saw some waves wash over the fishing plant from the near by hills....so no injuries, all OK. Rodrigo told me that there was a huge line of traffic coming into Coyhaique from Puerto Aysen after the tremor.....basically people know that it's safer to by in Coyhaique than Aysen as it's further from the epi- centre, therefore many people made their way here.
In order to give you an idea of where things are happening here's a link to a report on the situation - yes I realise it's in Spanish, however if you have the time to look at the map on page 4 that shows the whole region with Coyhaique and Puerto Aysen on it, and the map on page two shows Punta Tortuga where people wen missing from; it's to the top left part of the pink circle that shows the epi -centre. (You'll need to zoom in to see it properly). Hopefully it'll give you a better idea of where it's happening. Even I don't have a great idea of where things are, but the most important fact for me is that I'm in a safe place as I'm miles away from the sea, therefore the only dangers I face are from the earth-quake type effects of the tremors.
http://www.sernageomin.cl/sitio_web/descarga/Informe1_web.pdf
Up until this point this region has not been given a lot of attention from Santiago, and many people working of ONEMI, the national emergancy part of teh government has been rather useless. Today however the president came to visit Puerto Aysen and planes and helicopters left Santiago last night to help with the searches for the missing people. I don't know whether the emergency planning will get better, but I hope so. Luckily for Rodrigo his planning was successful; there were no deaths or injuries in his fishing plants - it's a pity that a different company did the plans for the workers in Punta Tortuga where people have most probably died (there is not much hope of finding living survivors, especially as many Chileans do not know how to swim, even though their jobs involve working in the water).
Obviously some people were simply unlucky to be on the beach during the tremor......sometimes finding higher ground is a difficult task in the heat of the moment, after all 30-50 seconds is a short amount of time to try to find shelter.
So, as this hasn't hit international news (there's no reason for it to do so) I thought I'd update you - especially for those of you that know the region. We're all OK here though, we've got our bottles of water stored in the house, with candles on stand by. I'm keeping calm, especially when I'm with people that tend to panic. The calmness I'm aiming for does have a price though; my shoulders are very tense. Luckily Rodrigo has agreed to supply massages for my aching shoulders. :)
I'll try to find various other images to add as I come across them, and pelase add any information that you might have about this kind of topic.