I noticed several of my friend had posted "their story" on their blog, so I thought I would do ours too.
That night was actually going really well for us. Lily woke up once at 11pm for a diaper change (completely normal in our house) and actually snored the entire time I was changing her. I stayed up too late vegging in front of the TV and playing on the computer and went to bed around 12:30am. Abby woke up at 2am, and I put her on the floor of our room by my side of the bed.
And then, as you all know, at about 3:30am the earthquake hit.
I woke up instantly. Joel says he doesn't remember much of it, though I know he was awake as well. At first we just laid there in bed waiting for it to be over. I kept thinking, "Don't you dare wake up the girls." But it just got stronger. And it didn't stop.
The windows started rattling (we had them open because it was a nice night out) and we instantly jumped up in bed. I told Joel, "Get Abby" and he ran to her room. Except she wasn't in her room, she was on our floor. Apparently he had slept through me bringing her in there. I thought he was going to Lily's room, so I turned around and basically just covered Abby with my body in case anything fell over. Joel figured out I had Abby and ran to take care of Lily.
The earthquake lasted about one full minute. Let me tell you that was one long minute.
And of course our power was out when it was over, so Joel stumbled down the stairs to get the flashlight we leave in the kitchen (note to self: it would be helpful to have a flashlight on the second floor, too). Abby had woken up while I was leaning over her and decided she was not going to let go of me. As soon as everything stopped moving, we got the kids downstairs and I got Joel to pull the portacrib out of the basement and we put Lily in the nanny's room. I was only able to pry Abby's fingers off of me by bribing her with a sippycup of milk and telling her she could sleep in the nanny's bed with her. Well, Abby just thought that was the coolest thing in the whole world, so she curled right up with Patty (the nanny) and went right back to sleep.
The next few minutes were spent trying to find the matches and the candles and the embassy radio (walkie-talkie). Apparently I packed the candles in with the Christmas decorations and the walkie talkie decided it didn't feel like working that day. So we called in to the embassy on the neighbor's radio, and Joel changed clothes and headed in to work. Yes, at 4am, about 30 minutes after the earthquake. All of the other embassy kids and families were parked at my neighbor's house sleeping on the living room floor together, but I didn't want to move the girls - I knew I'd never get them back to sleep. So I went around the house and filled up every pitcher we had, and then filled up the bathtub with water. (All those years of growing up in hurricane country came right back to me.) Then I took a shower, figuring we probably wouldn't have hot water for much longer with no power, and I better shower while I had the chance.
So, that puts me at about 5:30am, finally laying down on the couch and closing my eyes to get whatever sleep I could. And yes, you guessed it, the girls woke up bright and chipper at 6:30am. Wanting to watch Dora and not understanding why the TV didn't work.
And can I just point out that LILY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON THE NIGHT OF THE EARTHQUAKE!! Yes, through the actual earthquake, through carrying her down the stairs, through putting her down into the portacrib, everything.
That is just so not fair.
We spent the next 48 hours cut off from the world. No power, the landlines went dead, and the cellphones weren't working. Us embassy "spouses" basically shuttled kids from one house to another trying to keep them all entertained. The only bit of information we had was the random scraps that the "employees" would tell us before they fell on the bed unconscious when they came home.
Joel came home around 11am - his office/department was demolished. Major water damage, everything. A total and complete mess. He and I took all of our freezer stuff over to his boss's house - who got power back right away, and then tried to hit grocery stores. Only one gas station was open, and you should have seen the people. Buying up all the junk food like crazy, because there was nothing else available.
Anyway, that night us neighborhood embassy folks started doing group BBQ's to use up the meat in our freezers before we lost it all.
The following day, Sunday, one grocery store opened and we ran in before they changed their minds. And yes, we did this WHILE we had the kids with us. What in the world were we thinking? We didn't get much. Hey, we still had no power, so what was the point, right? But these other crazies? They all had power, so why were they preparing for Armageddon? You guys who have lived through hurricanes know what I'm talking about. We picked up more charcoal and matches and candles (have tons of those now, hahahaha) and then waited in line for over an hour to pay. It was craziness. And I ended up bribing the girls by buying them candy and toys to make them behave. Bad mom/good mom, depending on your point of view, I guess.
By Monday, I was absolutely stir-crazy. I went in to the embassy with Joel and got on the computer. Answered emails, checked Facebook, cancelled my client appointments for the week. (Wouldn't ya know, the week I have a FULL roster of business - an earthquake hits.) I got on CNN.com and printed out the news for everyone back in our neighborhood. Before we left, Joel and I filled up the ice chests from everyone from the neighborhood (trying to keep our food from going) and headed back home. And were greeted with fabulous news - that power had come back on five minutes before we pulled up.
It was not until that night, when we watched the news for the first time, that I had any true understanding of what you guys had been seeing on the news for days. My first thought was, "Ohhhhh. That's why everyone was freaking out all over my Facebook page. Aaaaaahhhh."
Thankfully, our phones and Internet started working again on Tuesday. Cellphones are working as well, though it still flickers in and out from time to time.
Many of our friends were quite shook up and understandably freaked out about the entire situation. I have to say that while both Joel and I are stressed out (Joel more than me, after all, he has to go to work and deal with it now), I did not react like I expected. I actually have stayed more or less calm about the entire situation. It's not 9/11 --- nothing could compare to that. And I'm used to hurricanes that can last for days and days, so one minute didn't seem that bad. At least at the time. I had no idea this thing was going to register as an 8.8 or cause so much devastation.
But you know, for me I think it was that I realized that my kids are completely oblivious. Abby still thinks it was some kind of party, like a holiday or something. And Lily is just her normal crazy self. Maybe them being calm helped me be calm? Or perhaps I just "decided" that I had to stay calm so they continued to not notice what was going on? Not sure. Whichever way works for me. As long as my kids are safe and happy, that is all I need.
So, we are all dong fine. The girls are their normal wild selves. Joel's working a million hours a week and probably will continue that way for a while. Our house is fine with only minor damage - our dryer is broken, I think one of our hot water heaters has a short in the wire, I just noticed our kitchen floor tiles aren't "flat" anymore, and we lost two ugly pieces of pottery. That's it.
I hope to help out with some of the relief and volunteer efforts soon, but I'm waiting until things calm down a bit before I start investigating the best way to get involved.
So that's our story of the Chilean earthquake of 2010. May that be the only one we have to talk about this year.
Love,
Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily
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