By Maureen Valentine

.

The Church of the Divine Providence in Avenue Providencia of Santiago, Chile, suffered structural damage from the tremors. This photo was taken a few hours after the earthquake. (Photo by Santiago Vanegas)

At 3:30 in the morning on Saturday, 27 February, I was sitting at my dining room table in my home in central Santiago, Chile, with friends having some drinks… when something peculiar started to happen. My house started to shake. There was a split second when I thought “Am I crazy or is the table moving?” and then I locked eyes with one of my friends with a mutual communication of “GET OUT!”

Everyone jumped up and started running toward the door, screaming as the walls continued to move for an excruciating 90 seconds. The entire neighbourhood flooded into the street for fear of their houses collapsing.

Throughout the early morning of the 27th and the rest of the day, we continued to feel aftershocks. There were so much that sometimes we couldn’t tell if it was our imagination or the ground was actually moving. Nevertheless, by midday, our electricity and internet access had been restored, which gave me the opportunity to find out exactly what had happened and if it was something my family back in North Carolina would see in the international news. I quickly discovered that the earthquake had measured 8.8 on the Richter scale and a top news story worldwide.

Read More…

Posted under Chile, General, countries, responsible traveller, whl.travel newsletter

By Ethan Gelber

.

As a follow-up to our blog post about how you can help Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake, the most urgent plea at the moment is for temporary shelter for estimated one million homeless and displaced people.

Information from people actively helping to direct donations to the right places have relayed a call made by the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Assistance for 200,000 tents. By some estimates, less than 5% of what is needed has made it to people on the ground.

To help with this effort, Partners in Health, a non-profit medical charity that has been working in Haiti for for more than 20 years to build local medical capacity, has set up a special Web page for everyone able to donate money specifically for tents and bedding (sleeping pads, blankets and lightweight sleeping bags).

Donating cash is by far and away the best way to help. Partners in Health is not able to handle in-kind donations, generous though they are.

Posted under General, Haiti, countries

By Ethan Gelber

.

The devastation and tragedy are heart-wrenching following the 7.3 earthquake that leveled most of Port-au-Price, Haiti. The dispiriting pictures and tales of loss reach to the depth of our sorrow, just as the living, breathing bodies pulled from the rubble are reason for quiet celebration.

People, injured and afraid, on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following the earthquake (photo courtesy of Lambi Fund for Haiti)

I watch in horror, helpless from my distant perch (Sydney, Australia) but committed in whatever trifling ways open to me, reminded of just how thin the thread is that keeps us all safe on a sometimes merciless planet that, with a simple shrug, is able to wreak so much havoc. I was resident (albeit not present) in Sri Lanka at the time of the tsunami five years ago. I hastened home to Colombo a week later to do what I could then. What I feel today is laced with the anger and frustration of that time.

Read More…

Posted under General, Haiti, countries