Holiday couple experience Chile earthquake horror

Sarah Saunderson • Published 4 Mar 2010 14:29 0 Comments

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Frank and Eileen Horisk during their holiday.

The Santa Cruz church showing extensive damage after the earthquake.

A holidaying couple from Irvinestown have described the moment they were shaken awake by the massive earthquake that struck in Chile at the weekend.

Frank and Eileen Horisk are now returning home in the aftermath of the earthquake of a magnitude of 8.8, stronger than the quake that devastated Haiti.

More than 700 people were killed in Saturday's earthquake, the President of Chile Michelle Bachelet describing it as an "enormous catastrophe". The Horisks were staying in a small hacienda-type hotel near Santa Cruz, about 200 kilometres from the epicentre off the coast from the city of Concepcion. At least five people were killed in the immediate locality where the Horisks were staying.

"About 3.30 am we were woken by the bed shaking violently and the sound of breaking glass. This was accompanied by a roaring, rushing, rumbling sound like a train passing by. We then realised that we were in an earthquake with growing intensity. It seemed to go for a long time but was probably only a couple of minutes. We should have got out of room but were unable to do so because of the shaking," said Mr. Horisk.

Fears about the safety of the building meant that hotel guests spent the rest of the night in their cars. "When the shaking stopped we quickly got into the corridor outside the room and picked our way over broken ornaments to the outside. It was then extremely quiet and could not see or hear anybody else for a little while. Fortunately we had a torch and it was a bright moonlit night when we got outside as all the lights had failed. Other people began to collect. There was one family with four small children, including twins of a year old. It was decided people should stay outside in their cars until daylight," he explained.

By using a fellow tourist's laptop, the couple was able to e-mail their children to let them know that they were safe. "The father of the children had a laptop which he immediately started up to find out where the quake had originated. It was in the sea beyond Concepcion, about 200 kilometres away. Surprisingly he had a mobile signal and we were able to send an e-mail to our children to say we were safe," he added.

"The only casualty in the hotel was a man who cut his leg on a rosebush as he escaped from his room on the ground floor," he said.

"We were lucky that the hotel was a modern building, mostly one storey, so it was not badly damaged. There are some cracks in the walls and tiles off the roof. There have been a lot of aftershocks, some relatively large but not nearly as severe," he said.

Other buildings were not so robust. The two large local churches collapsed as well as many older buildings.

There are no telephone landlines so communication is limited. The Horisks' hotel had a generator so they had power and water. However, Mr. Horisk said that in the surrounding area there is "nothing". People have been coming into the hotel this week to charge phones and do washing. "There is no petrol in the area and we saw queues at the supermarket and pharmacy for supplies," he said.

The Horisks' holday began in Argentina early last month. A week ago, they crossed the Andes from Argentina to Chile, crossing lakes by boat and land on buses. They spent some time in the Puerto Varas and Pucon regions, both volcanic areas, before flying from Temucio to Santiago last Friday, driving their hire car to the Colchagua Valley near Santa Cruz in the afternoon. Less than 12 hours later the earthquake struck.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 04 Mar 10

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