Sunday March 28
Felt three earthquakes today, the first two while interviewing the Director of Radio Bio Bio and the third during a rest stop in Lota. They were gentle vibrations but a reminder that we are still in the midst of a vigorous aftershock sequence. I’m glad we are staying in a new Holiday Inn Express that doesn’t seem to have a single crack from the main shock. Not my normal style – but here I’ll take a well-engineered structure over quaint or rustic any day.

We spent the morning in downtown Concepción on the track of Radio Bio Bio. This is another one of those wonderful stories of an organization filling a vital need when almost all forms of communications were down. Pancho came through once again by arranging for us to talk to the director. Radio Bio Bio is an institution in Chile – around 40 radio stations throughout the country and currently celebrating its 40th anniversary. These are commercial stations that have a long tradition of community service and involvement. The director of the Concepción station is a civil engineer by training with a long interest in preparedness. About 5 years ago, he began to feel that Concepción was overdue for another strong earthquake. Concepción has a long earthquake history – hit by at least 5 major earthquakes between 1570 and 1750, and in 1751 so badly damaged that the entire city was moved further inland to its present site.

Concerned that another major earthquake might come soon spurred the radio station to secure all of the equipment in the studio, purchase a generator and even stock food and water. The preparedness actions paid off – the studio suffered no damage in the 8.8 mainshock and was back on the air within 20 minutes. For at least two days, it was the only station on the air throughout the region of strongest shaking. The station dropped all of its normal programming and went to information sharing 24-7 – no ads and no music. When a listener called in to see if someone could locate a needed prescription, the station became an informal connector of the medically needy to the needed supplies. When people couldn’t find a loved one, the station broadcast the information widely. When a large aftershock occurred a week later, even the Navy realized that the quickest way to get their tsunami message out to the public was via Radio Bio Bio. The station is filled with banners, flowers, and testimonials from the public with thanks for the critical role it has played. Even their return to normal programming was carefully planned – no ads or music for the first 8 days, then a gradual insertion of carefully chosen music.

Afterwards, we spent an hour on a quick tour of downtown Concepción. At first glance, it survived the February earthquake remarkably well. The overwhelming majority of buildings are still standing and many with no apparent damage. But a closer look reveals that almost every brick/adobe building is seriously compromised. I’ve never seen such a clear example of the selectivity of an earthquake to pluck all the weak structures. There were a few spectacular examples of newer buildings that failed, but the overwhelming majority looked fine. Infrastructure – roads, bridges and pipes – did not fare as well and no question that construction crews will be busy for some time. Spread failures and differential settling was particularly hard on the structures near the Bio Bio river.