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When an Earthquake
Strikes ...
Santiago, Chile
F
~R
Reb.eca Mar–
t mez, tt was a
moment
s he
would never forget.
The evening of
March 3, 1985, she was
bathing when the
powerful earthquake
struck.
The walls, the roof and
the floor began to shake
violently. lnstinctively, she
dashed for the door. But
the walls were pressing
against the door frame and
On March 4, 1985, Esperanza Street in Santiago.
had jammed the door shut. With the
sudden strength one is able to mus–
ter as life is threatened, she heaved
and the door flung open.
She leaped out and a second later
the heavy roof and walls carne
crashing down. She watcbed horri–
fied as much of the bathroom fell
to the second floor below. She ran
downstairs amid the sound of fall–
ing plaster, bricks and wood. She
made it out the front door as her
husband covered her with a towel.
Fortunately for this Santiago
family, none were injured, but
much of the house lay in ruins. The
earthquake, which finally was esti–
mated at 7.8 on the Richter scale,
left a million people either home–
less or with heavy damages to their
houses. Clase to 200 people died
and thousands were injured in what
authorities consider to be one of the
most destructive earthquakes in the
Western Hemisphere in this cen–
tury. Over a thousand after shocks
occurred in the first four weeks
after the earthquake.
What happens when an earth-
September 1985
quake strikes? What goes through
a person's mind? How is one's life
affected?
For Rebeca Martinez, the young
housewi fe of the story, her
tboughts were of escaping. In her
desperation as she fought to open
the door, she began to pray for
help. Yet she had not attended any
church for years. As a result of her
clase brush with death, she is
searcbing for a greater and more
secure Power in her life.
" 1 felt so helpless and insignifi–
cant in the midst of all the crumbling
walls. 1 thought for a moment the
end of the world had come and 1 was
not ready. 1 now want to draw closer
to God and know why 1 am alive."
Many of those seriously affected
by the quake did think in those two
destructive minutes that the end of
the world had come. Soledad Corne–
jo, a university student, said, "We
have been through two other terrible
earthquakes. My mother saw in the
earthquake of 1965 how the houses
carne down on the people. This one
was so violent that 1 thought the
earth would open and
swallow all of us....
There was no place to
escape."
For those who did not
suffer damage, their atti–
tude was markedly differ–
ent. Edgar Baerwald, a
businessman, was on the
1Oth floor of an apartment
building at the time of the
quake. "All
1
thought
about was how terribly
long it was and how to
calm my aging mother.
Now, 1 have a hard time
going to sleep and am more nervous
than normal."
For the first week after the
quake, most churches were filled
with frightened people. But after
things returned to a more normal
pace, the attendance figures carne
back to the prequake ave"rage.
Rebeca Martinez attended
church once a fter her terrible
ordeal in search for sorne answers
to her existence. " 1 have seen a
need to draw closer to God," she
said, "but there are so many prob–
lems 1 need to deal with now. I
have difficulties in my home and
now 1 have to find a way to build
the house again."
Her initial search for the answers
about life and the purpose of her
existence will probably diminish as
the pressing needs of the moment
become her primary concern.
Though she will never forget those
horrible moments when her life was
at stake, those moments of drawing
closer to God will dim as life's daily
problems again become tbe priority.
-Mario Seiglie
39