Word: chiles
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...this bruised and shaken city took its first nervous steps toward reclaiming normality. While pockets of this country of 16 million lie in ruins - the country's President, Michelle Bachelet, declared several sections of central Chile "zones of catastrophe" - Santiago has had few injuries or deaths. But although the physical damage is minimal, there's a sense of unease that lingers below the city's shining surface. The wedding ceremony went ahead as scheduled at Catedral Metropolitana, but the congregation was, a participant guessed, perhaps one-fifth the number of those originally invited; the rest preferred to stay home. Meanwhile...
...wish to believe they have destiny in their grasp, Santiago - the economic jewel of South America - is perched on a stretch of earth that violently resists all efforts to tame it. Situated along the ring of fire, a hotbed of seismic activity that encircles the Pacific, the plates Chile sits on top of regularly unleash earthquakes of extremely high magnitude - more than a dozen major earthquakes since 1973. Richter can assign them a number, but it is difficult to describe how feverish and angry the earth feels here. The aftershocks this weekend have come fast and hard. Periodically, the ground...
Normalcy cannot return as long as Santiago, and indeed all of Chile, remains essentially sealed off. The airport is closed, major roads are impassable, and even the country's main ports have sustained significant damage. Many gas stations in Santiago are out of petrol, and several stores visited by TIME had empty shelves. The President took to the airwaves to appeal for calm, and in Santiago at least, the population seems to be following her advice. But no society is without tensions, and in the barrio of Maipú, on the western edge of Santiago, the city's underclass...
Maipú is heavily populated with Peruvian and Bolivian immigrant workers, many of whom arrived in Chile illegally to take advantage of the country's strong economy and low unemployment, which is around 8%. A tour of the neighborhood suggested that the damage to stores in this area was decidedly more pronounced than in wealthier areas. And the difference was not lost on the residents. Outside one apartment block, a group of residents gathered for a meeting. The ceiling of their building had crumpled in the quake, and the apartment dwellers were sure it was due to shoddy workmanship...
...interview with TIME, Paul Simons, the U.S. ambassador to Chile, said the U.S. stands ready to offer any aid to Chile to help it meet all the needs of its citizens. But, Simons pointed out, Chile is a leader in emergency response and emergency management - the country was one of the first to send help to Haiti. "It may be they don't need our help," he said...