TerremotoChile – Chilean Earthquake

I just wanted to give an update on the Chilean earthquake. The epicenter was 70 miles from Concepcion, the city where the mission offices were located. Tome, the city where I served for seven months was one of the closest cities to the epicenter. It is about 60 miles from the epicenter. I have heard from many friends in Santiago, Vina del Mar, and Valpariso who are all okay. They did not have power or water for quite a while but they seem to all have it back within 24 hours of the earthquake. These cities are about 300 miles from the epicenter.

I have tried many many times to contact people in Tome but cell phones nor landlines are working. I am horribly worried for their well being based on the news I have heard and what I know of the geography there. The town next to Tome is reported to be 85% underwater from the tsunami. The town across the bay from Tome (Talcahuano) was confirmed to have had a 2-3 meter tsunami do major damage. I have not been able to verify that Tome was hit by a tsunami but it undoubtedly was.

Above is a picture of Tome that was taken in 1997/1998. I don’t know how well you can distinguish the altitude. The area with white houses and dirt is where I lived. It is a neighborhood built on a very steep slope. I am extremely worried about this neighborhood because I think that the steep slope makes it especially vulnerable in an earthquake. You can see the ocean below. The whole downtown area of the city is just above sea level and if a tsunami hit then houses, a friends apartment building, grocery story, government buildings, etc, etc would have been affected.

Lebu is another pueblito that I am very worried about. It is also low lying on the coast. I have not yet heard from anyone there. I can’t remember how far the house where I lived was from the ocean but I think that it is far enough that it would be safe in case of tsunami, much of the town however would not be. It is also a small town where there would be a lot more houses of adobe then in the larger cities. The adobe homes seem to have been the most dangerous. I’ve heard nothing from Quirihue but it is also a very small town with many adobe homes. It is probably 30-40 miles from the epicenter.

I have heard news from Chillan, the first city I served in. It sounds like everyone in the ward I worked in is safe, however there are some people who have had significant damage to their homes. For some reason Chillan does not seem to be as strongly affected as other cities in the area. It is only 60 miles from the epicenter.

This is a typical adobe building in Quirihue. It has no support and would easily fall in an earthquake. If I remember right this is the house of Jose.

Solange & Jeffeey Nico

Clay & Plants

Jon, Joe, Clay's new friend Alexis and I picked up our Bigger Tigger from National this morning. On our way into DC to have lunch at Good Stuff (Spike of Top Chef fame and his mom own it ... pretty amazing cheeseburgers, fries & shakes) we drove by the US Botanic Gardens. Clay was pouting about the fact that he had not been taken there. We decided to remedy the error of our parenting ways, parked and went in.

They were having an exhibit of ORCHIDS ... we notified Chuck immediately via text message, but thought all of you would enjoy some of the pictures. Check out www.usbg.gov. We also learned that USBG has a HUGE warehouse that they open only 1 day per year to the public for tours. You can read more about it here: http://www.usbg.gov/education/events/US-Botanic-Garden-Production-Facility-Open-House.cfm

I also took some pics of the storm damage - the broken tree in the picture is on the grounds of the US Capital. Sadly, this is a common sight all over the area.

Clay takes a turn leading the Orchid exhibit tour. He's got a little Vana White in him.

Orchid exhibit ... breathtaking.

a picture is worth a 1,000 words ... I have nothing more to add to this one.

Sad storm victim.

Joe, Alexis and Clay in the Hawaii exhibit at the USBG.

My first pull up in over 20 years

In early December I started doing CrossFit at a friend’s gym.  One of the things that we do every workout is pull ups.  He has bands that help support your weight.  Even with that pull ups are challenging and it was hard for me to fathom the day that I would be able to do a pull up like I could do in elementary school.  On Wednesday’s I go to recess with my Kindergarten kids and I always try a pull up on the playground to see how I am progressing.  When I tried today I was astonished as my chin crested the bar.  When I got to CrossFit tonight I was anxious to see if I could do a pull up from full shoulder & elbow extension.  I was again excited and astonished as my chin crested the bar.  I was able to do seven before my muscles fatigued.

My first pull up!

 

This was five days ago using the band when I thought that it would still be months before I could do a pull up without the support of the band.

 

This is a sample of one of the workouts we have done.  We did 5 rounds of 1) floor wipers (bench press 65# and then touch feet to each side of the weight bar 5 times) 2) static lunges with 25# overhead 5 times with each leg 3) 5 pull ups.  You try to do the workouts as fast as you can and I did this one in 12 minutes.