Businesses Can Help Aid Chile’s Earthquake and Tsunami Recovery

Amazing devastation in central Chile’s coastal region.

Not to discount what recently happened elsewhere in Latin America, but massive earthquakes coupled with a tsunami just sucks! AdQuantify Web Design and CR8Change.org Green Web Hosting will be donating 10% of all new revenues in March, April and May to aid Chile’s reconstruction via Save The Waves Coalition and www.wavesforwater.org.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet described the disaster as “an emergency without parallel in Chile’s history.” Chilean officials initially balked at international assistance, but Bachelet appealed for help as the scope of the devastation from Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude quake became clearer.

Survivors in the city reportedly were angered by the slow pace of getting government issued relief supplies. Bachelet promised imminent deliveries of food, water and shelter for thousands living on the streets. She ordered troops to help deliver food, water and blankets and clear rubble from roads, and she urged power companies to restore service first to hospitals, health clinics and shelters. Field hospitals were planned for hard-hit Concepcion, Talca and Curico.

Bachelet, who leaves office March 11, also signed a decree giving the military control over security in the provinces of Concepcion and Maule and announced a 9 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew for all non-emergency workers.

In Concepcion, the city nearest the epicenter, police used tear gas and imposed a curfew in an effort to control looting. Jaime Toha, the governor of Concepcion province, said 55 people were arrested overnight Sunday for violating curfew.

The images below show the magnitude of the earthquake and Tsunami which left all the Maule region (central Chile) in ruins. Our hearts are with all those that were killed, with those not yet found. The country has taken a great blow, but as with most devastating events, life goes on and we are simply forced to find new ways to deal.

Video: Tsunami and Earthquake Destruction in Central Chile

In the town of Constitucion, 350 people were reported dead after the killer wave struck.

“The tsunami destroyed almost everything on the seafront, [and] the center of the town was completely destroyed,” Constitucion Mayor Hugo Tilleria told state television. “This means lots of people still haven’t been accounted for.”

Reports speak of people out in the streets searching for food and water in and around Concepcion. Reportedly people have mixed feelings about the military presence. “Some find it kind of shocking because they haven’t seen the military in the streets since the Pinochet dictatorship,”;  “Other people say that they’re glad to see them because of the disorder that was starting to become commonplace.”

Efforts to get an assessment of the full extent of damage were complicated by continuing aftershocks that have done more damage and forced thousands of people to set up makeshift tent camps rather than return to their homes.

Save The Waves Coalition, and their partners in Chile are a highly effective, local NGO with years of fieldwork experience in coastal Chile. Their effective and highly specialized teams work on the ground in the hardest-hit coastal region of Chile is organizing a relief trip to the hardest hit region of Chile this week with doctors and medics. Save The Waves needs donations of all sizes to support travel to the region, distribute medical treatment, and purchase and distribute medical supplies, water, food, water filters and camping gear for the suffering. Save The Waves is partnering with Waves for Water (www.wavesforwater.org) to provide water filters for clean drinking water, something that is crucially needed right now.

Because Save The Waves Coalition’s ongoing environmental work is in the same region as the disaster epicenter, Save The Waves is uniquely positioned to help direct humanitarian relief efforts in the region. Save The Waves is therefore organizing this humanitarian aid trip to the Buchupureo, Cobquecura and Curanipe areas at the quake epicenter. Josh Berry, Save The Waves environmental director, is on his way to Chile to act as coordinator of this relief effort.

All donations to Save The Waves for Chile earthquake relief will go directly to humanitarian aid in the most devastated region. Your donations will be spent directly on the ground in Chile. Since Save The Waves is a small and nimble organization with years of experience in coastal Chile, your support for this disaster will be extremely effective. No bureaucratic filters, no delays, just pure support for the coastal communities that are in dire need. Donate and learn more at the link below.

PLEASE DONATE & HELP SAVE THE WAVES EARTHQUAKE RELIEF IN CHILE:
* www.savethewaves.org *

* Chile Relief & Media Contact:
Josh Berry
josh@savethewaves.org
Tel. 415-578-8388

Learn more here: Donation Based Services To Aid Chile Earthquake & Tsunami Recovery