Letter from Chile
"We have been working with our bare hands"
Coronel, March 8th, 2010
“Please God, no more quakes. We can't go through that again,” says Mariana Monsalve. She and more than 830 people from the village of Schwager, whose homes are destroyed or damaged, now live in temporary shelters on a hill 100 metres above sea level. The settlement has been dubbed “Campamento Schwager”, and the explanation for its elevated location is simple: with constant aftershocks, people fear another tsunami.
Schwager is close to Coronel, a coastal town just south of Concepcion. The area's economy is based on forestry, coal mining and fishing. Schwager itself was a company town, built to house mine employees. Today, 1,200 people still depend on the mining industry and still live in these buildings.
The camp is quite well organised, but there is no clean water or sanitation. Some of the 300 children here have already fallen sick. “We have been working with our bare hands,” says Manuel Gonzalez, a local leader. "But we need help". He explained that they had asked for a field hospital, a pediatric doctor for the children, and tents. They were still awaiting a reponse from the Coronel authorities.
Mariana gives me hot cup of local coffee and as I sip it, I contemplate the calm seashore, littered with vessels destroyed by the tsunami.
It is a scene repeated more dramatically when we move on to the port of Talcahuano north of Concepcion. There the destruction is massive. It is astonishing there were so few casualties, but the fishing industry has been badly hit. A fisherman called Mario tells me how he lost his boat. His family survived by fleeing to higher ground as soon as the earthquake began.
In addition to the many boats that have been destroyed, the port installations are seriously damaged. A smell of rotting fish permeates the air. Other industries in the region have suffered too. 25% of local wine production, concentrated in the Maule and Bio Bio valleys, has been lost. Fruit pulp and wheat producers have been affected because of the damage to storage facilities and mills. This explains the current shortage of bread in Concepcion and Talca, the capitals of the two worst affected departments.
It took just minutes for the waves – both seismic and ocean – to wreak their destruction. The rebuilding will take many years.
Juan Carlos Rincon Dominguez
ECHO Regional Information Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean
