Thursday April 1
Last full field day. Started out by talking to the staff at the hotel what happened during the earthquake. They were full and there was a mixed response to what to do during the shaking. Some people moved to doorways but many went outside. No one had heard of “Drop, Cover, Hold-on”. But they were somewhat prepared – had a generator and the guests were fairly calm. The power was out for weeks and their credit card reader was still not up. This presented a problem as we didn’t have enough cash. Fortunately they were very easy going and just gave us their bank info in Santiago and told us to deposit the money when we got there. Can’t imagine that happening in many other places. The guests were stuck there until Tuesday (the earthquake was early Saturday) because landslides had closed the roads. We were told this happened in many places and some hotels didn’t charge their stuck clients. Fortunately they had plenty of food on hand and minimal damage – though I noticed it was nearly impossible to open/close the door to my room and the snooker table had a distinct undulation that wasn’t there before.

Off to Iloca, the town where the policeman we talked to on Day 4 had been stationed during the earthquake/tsunami. It was a crazy drive – off on a dirt road without the help of Susie, our GPS navigator. Troy had programmed her with a sweet female voice and Sebastian christened her sassy Susie. She helped us a lot in getting to Concepción, but was balky and difficult to use when we didn’t have a specific address and many of the roads weren’t in her data base. No help at all on the dirt roads between Vichuquén and Iloca – attempt 1 ended up fording a river to a dead end, attempt 2 went a couple miles past our turn and attempt 3 worked, but on the last turn a logging truck had turned too fast, the load had shifted and over they went. Fortunately the driver was ok.

The towns of Duao and Iloca were both heavily hit by the tsunami. We started out at the police station hoping to talk to some of the people who had worked with the policeman we had talked to earlier and have them show us their evacuation route. The station had been destroyed by the tsunami and the police were currently occupying a temporary modular building. Unfortunately for us, all of the staff who had been stationed in Iloca on February 27 had been re-stationed in inland communities because of their stress levels. It was considered too difficult for them to continue to be surrounded by the devastation of the tsunami. The man at the station explained what the route was so we decided to walk it and time it.

The official evacuation route that the police pointed out took over twenty minutes. Most of it was parallel to the beach. It made no sense to us. So we began to interview as many people as we could both about how they figured out it was important to evacuate and where they went. Turned out there had been many more preparedness efforts in Iloca than what we had heard from the policeman. This shouldn’t have been a surprise – he was a temporary visitor from inland and only stationed there uring peak tourist times. A team from the University at Talca had been holding workshops in the town for several years. They sounded similar to Judy Warren’s Red Class course “Living on the Faultline and along the Coast” complete with preparing a grab-and-go bag to keep by the door. People were urged to figure out the best route to get to high ground within ten minutes from where they lived and everyone further from the official evacuation route just headed to the nearest inland site. The police actions did play a very important role – they notified the people in the campground and other people who hadn’t evacuated. We had lunch at, and talked to, the staff at the Hotel Iloca who were all from inland towns. They went outside after the earthquake and just stood around not knowing what to do. The police came by and told them to evacuate. If the police had not been pro-active, I think the locals would have all survived. But their action clearly kept Iloca from becoming a Curanipe or Pelluhue where so many campers died. We need to find out more about the Talca program, who ran it, and what it included.

Talking to the staff at the hotel gave us a different perspective on the event. The Hotel Iloca was virtually untouched by either the earthquake or tsunami. It was right on the beach and only about 4 meters above mean sea level. Areas both to the north and south were devastated. Other research teams have commented on the fingers of devastation this tsunami produced. In some areas it seems fairly easy to understand the pattern – south of the epicentral region north facing beaches and bays were nailed and south facing ones spared. But the Iloca pattern seems more complex. Troy talked to a retired scientific photographer who spoke good English and spent his summers in Iloca. He observed the Humboldt current reverse during the earthquake. The moon was full, and he was very familiar with observing the predominant offshore current here and saw a distinct change from the normal northern flow to heading south after the earthquake. Another story to further pursue as this could also affect the direction the tsunami surges came in from.

In addition to the staff at Hotel Iloca, Sebastian and Pancho talked to several other business owners who were very concerned about their future. There were a number of intact businesses – hotels, restaurants, shops – that although open for business, had very few customers. They were concerned that the media coverage of the Iloca damage had created the perception that the town was essentially closed. We certainly had that perception and probably would not have stayed in Vichuquén if we had realized what nice lodgings were available right in Iloca.

Our last stop was the brand new school in Duao. Before the earthquake/tsunami, there were three elementary through junior high schools in the Lincantén municipality that includes Iloca an Duao. All were damaged by the earthquake and the two coastal schools by the tsunami as well. For years the district had hoped to build a new combined school but lacked the funds to do so. The earthquake created the opportunity to make it happen. As a result of the help of businesses, the Canadian government and the volunteer efforts of the community and construction crews, they built a new modular school (on high ground) in one week. It was cheerful and well-organized and included a new computer lab that had not existed in any of the old schools. We talked to the principal and she was concerned that some families might not allow their children to return to school because of worries about aftershocks. Regionally, there has been a sharp decrease in attendance in most schools within the earthquake area. The Duao school staff went door –to-door explaining to families how well-equipped and safe the school was and when the school opened a little over a week ago, we were told that attendance was nearly normal. Many of the parents said they thought going back to school would be good for their students as so many were displaced and the parents stressed by the earthquake/tsunami impacts. Staff were also having difficulty dealing with the aftermath and we were told the Red Cross was providing counseling services.

We asked what they taught about earthquakes and tsunamis in the schools. There isn’t much in text books but many teacher voluntarily enrich the curriculum (sounds similar to California). What is different is a national program called Operation Daisy that teaches hazards preparedness throughout the country. What hazards are covered are chosen by the individual municipalities. For example Andean schools might choose to teach landslides and volcanic hazards. We heard about Operation Daisy in several other communities and it was our sense that most coastal districts teach earthquake and tsunami safety in the program. This includes many drills and we heard a number of stories of school children urging their parents to evacuate and showing them where to go during the February 27 event.

One big difference between Chile and California is what students and the public are told to do during an earthquake. At the Duao school, students are taught to gather in the center of the classroom (no Drop, Cover, Hold-on) and in the shaking lasts more than 20 seconds or so to evacuate the building while the ground is still shaking. A number of adults mentioned moving to doorways, suggesting that was what they had been taught, but the principal told us schools no longer make that suggestion.

Off to Pichilemu, a surfer’s mecca, for our last night on the coast. We are staying at the Waitara (a Maori name) no more than 10 feet above high tide. I asked the hotel manager where the tsunami evacuation route was and she said don’t worry, there won’t be a tsunami. I’m not so sure – put my shoes and computer backpack by the door and hung my headlamp on the bed post.