Reporting in. I've only heard from two other smashers, who live in the North of Chile. One of them didn't even feel the earthquake, the other one didn't bother to get up. But chances are everyone in the community is ok (I hope so, at least). As far as I know, none of us lived near the epicenter of the earthquake. Most of us live in or near the capitol city, Santiago, where the earthquake was an 8 in the Mercalli scale. This is very strong, but the buildings resisted quite well. Most accidents you see on TV are caused by engineering mistakes, which saddens me.
Here's my testimony, in case someone's interested what it felt like for a random person:
I woke up at about 3:30 A.M. It took me about a minute and the screams of the rest of my family to realize the earthquake was hella strong, since it felt more like a dream. My memories of the actual earthquake are kind of vague now, I think I was sleepy. I remember my parents turning on the lights, which then flashed a lot, since electricity was constantly going on and off. I ran downstairs (I sleep in a second floor), stood between two pillars and waited, constantly hearing crashes and glass breaking, not to mention the floor was moving like crazy. Suddenly the flashing stopped and I guessed we no loger had electricity. The floor didn't really shake like I'm used to in earthquakes, it oscilated heavily. I didn't see much in the darkness, but I remember the lamp moving back and forth. When it was finally over I still felt the floor moving, like when you're seasick. After that I felt lots of aftershocks. Gradually, the time between aftershocks grew larger and I went to bed. I felt about 10 aftershocks lying in my bed until I finally got asleep.
The damage wasn't very serious since no one in my home was injured and there was no structural damage. Lots of stuff fell down, a 6 foot bookcase being the biggest. Our fishtank of about 70 liters lost 10 while it moved (luckily it didn't fall down). A desk broke in two. The top was full of books and fell on an empty bed. Luckily, the person who usually sleeps in that bed, was on vacation. Electricity came back at 10 AM and has now been restored in the majority of Santiago. I've called many friends and have heard of no serious injury.
I just felt a 10 second long aftershock while writing this: 16 hours after the earthquake.
Thanks for the good wishes, MATTS.
PS: Chile has a history of strong earthquakes. The word's strongest earthquake was recorded in Chile in 1960 scoring 9,6 in the Richter scale. 25 years ago, a 7,7 hit the central zone of Chile. If the damage isn't huge now, like it was in Haiti (a 7,5 in the Richter scale), it's because our country is prepared. Any structure built is supposed to resist an earthquake like this (again, exceptions make me sad). Also, Chilean ground is rocky, unlike the one in Haiti.
And another aftershock...
MATTS! and the Smash Community.
