Area residents feel effects of Chile earthquake

Carrie Horak was in Chile to immerse herself in the culture and learn the language.

The immersion was more than she could have anticipated.

The Downers Grove resident, who studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said she was awake at 3:45 a.m. in her Santiago apartment when the earthquake hit Saturday.

"I was just in my bed on my computer," said Horak, who is in Chile through an exchange program offered by Butler University. "There was a slight shake initially and then everything really started to move. I just ran out of my bed and ran into my door frame and just stayed there the whole time. My host mom ran out of her home and shouted (the Spanish word for) 'earthquake.' It was pretty loud and a lot of things started to fall. That was the most scary. My host mom has a lot of decorations and a lot of things just fell on the floor and broke."

Meanwhile, in the Chicago area, residents with relatives affected by the earthquake waited for any kind of word.

Like his fellow countrymen in the states, Fernando Godoy has been waiting for news from home. Godoy said he and his wife Melina, who live in Buffalo Grove, have been steadily watching DirecTV's satellite feed from Chile for the past couple of days.

"It's hard, it's tough, because you are here and you can do nothing," Godoy said. "I don't know how much we can do here for the people."

Godoy, a former resident of Santiago, said his mother, an American citizen, was visiting her family in Chile at the time of the earthquake.

"Fortunately I spoke with them, and they are good," he said.

He added that his mother would like to return to the U.S., but the airport is closed.

Yet another concern lingers for Godoy and his wife, since her cousin and aunt live very close to the center of the quake and no one has heard from them. He was told that 95 percent of their town was destroyed.

Melina said part of her family is in Curanipe, including her uncle, aunt, cousin and some other distant relatives taking vacations by the beach south of Santiago. She said another cousin, who is stuck in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has not had the chance to fly back home, is unaware of the fate of his family in Curanipe. The airport is closed because of structural damage.

Godoy's friend, Mario Rojas, who lives in Chicago, said he was immediately frustrated on Saturday because he could not immediately communicate with loved ones in Chile.

"In the afternoon, I got lucky, and my oldest sister Sylvia called me on a cell phone," Rojas said. "That way I found out at least that my close family is OK."

He said they live in Santiago, but most of the damage is to the south in Concepción. Still, he said the wall that divides his sister's house from a neighbor's caved in. Damage like this throughout Chile has changed the beautiful environment he visited last October, he added.

"Everything was so pretty," said Rojas. "Now it's all down and destroyed. It's so sad."

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<li><a href="/story/?id=362595">Chile quake death toll hits 708 as rescue ramps up <span class="date">[3/1/10]</span></a></li>

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