[Sca-cooks] OOP and Off Topic Earthquake Relief

[Suey]

     We are getting in a lot of news about what to do in future, which 
does not cover wounds of Saturday a week. The more you read the more you 
want to cry. A doctor of mine received me today for a check up because 
he canceled all his appointments last week to work in emergency. As so 
many provincial hospitals fell down in the south, he spent the week 
receiving patients in bad condition who were flown into his clinic.
     I heard on the radio today that a building collapsed in Concepcion 
and five hours later reporters from the major newspaper, the Mercurio in 
Santiago, heard people inside screaming for help. A reporter approached 
a fireman on the scene who was doing nothing.  He said he had no orders 
to go in. The same happened in another spot where military trucks were 
stopped on a major highway with relief goods, diapers, toilet paper, 
water etc. The reporter asked why all those trucks were stopped. The 
answer was that the captain was waiting from orders from the commander 
of the region!
     On the other hand a friend of ours is married to a helicopter pilot 
in the armed forces. He flies experts, materials, whatever into 
Concepcion daily from Santiago. He has learned that to protect himself 
from civilians who run begging toward his helicopter  that if he drops 
something like a bag of used clothing from me, the people will run for 
the bag and let him land safely.
     As you can see with the fund raiser last week-end, the Chileans are 
more generous then they themselves realized. On every corner on every 
street in Santiago there are volunteers asking for organizations like 
the Red Cross, even funeral homes. They also attacked the supermarkets. 
On Thursday the aisles were empty, there was no soup, no milk, no 
bottled water, no diapers, no tp, etc etc because the customers bought 
for themselves and managed another cart to send to the needy, which they 
paid for and gave to volunteers on the spot. When I got there, there was 
only fresh fruit but as I was leaving I spied delivery trucks arriving. 
I returned a few hours later and I too helped deplete them of basic 
article. Another volunteer approached me this morning showing me a 
pamplet for the organization for which she works. I told her no more, my 
husband was taking care of those things. She gasped between tears,
     - You do not understand - So many people have lost everything! -
     More than half the students have not been able to return to school 
as the buildings have fallen down. Even the University of Chile is 
working on half steam. How many students have lost the breadwinners in 
their families?
     In short the list is endless.
Suey