Large earthquake shakes nation, shifts axis

We found out around 11 p.m. about what had happened, and being from Chile, we then spent almost two days trying to get a hold of our mom, the rest of the family and friends. The earthquake in Chile occurred on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010 at around 3:34 a.m. Oregon is five hours behind, meaning it was 10:34 p.m. on Friday Feb. 26 when the earthquake hit.

My mom hadn’t been in Chile in more than nine years. When the earthquake began, she was in Chile’s capital, Santiago. She had wanted to visit Frutillar, a town which she had visited many years ago when she was just a little girl and that she had dreamt of going back to since the minute she left it. My mom didn’t get to go because the town no longer exists.

Way before we could reach anyone over there, the Chilean news spoke of nothing else but fear and showed no other images than the ones of almost total destruction. A mother said she walked nearly 15 hours to get to her seven-year-old son. I’ve been watching the Chilean news everyday since the earthquake occurred, and I can see the devastating effects that the 8.8 earthquake had, not only in the country, but in the world. This earthquake, which is supposed to be the seventh strongest in recorded history and had released about 600 times more energy than the Haiti earthquake, “may have shifted Earth’s axis by about three inches … each day should be about 1.26 microseconds shorter,” according to CNN.

Once we found our mom, we were finally able to speak with her for about 15 seconds. “We’re fine, we’re fine …” The phone died after that. Hours later, she told us how it hap­pened. “I couldn’t sleep; I heard the noise before it even began to tremble … once it started, I couldn’t go down the stairs, the shakes were so strong that it kept pushing me back up and tossing me and the little ones across the room … we bumped our heads against the walls and the lights shut down. It was horrible, but we’re OK.”