De aardbeving in Chili heeft vele delen van de kust vernietigd. Ook de beroemde windsurfsurf plek Matanzas is hard geraakt.

Lees de verhalen van Robby Swift en Klaas Voget die beide in hun huizen in Matanzas waren toen de aardbeving plaatsvond en over de broer van Robby die een website heeft opgezet, waar mensen geld kunnen doneren.

Het verhaal van Robby Swift via www.continentseven.com

“thank you to everyone who has contacted us in concern. just to let everyone know, we escaped without injury but were obviously very scared and the house was badly damaged. there are many people much less fortunate than us though.

the village below us was torn apart first by the earthquake and then by the tsunami. i wil…l post some pictures of the horrible sights later on. in the mean time, for those of you who feel moved to help, my brother has set up a charity for donations at the link below. the money will go to the small, humble community who have worked their whole lives to build the small village they call home and many of whom are now left with nothing at all.

watching the coverage here on the news now that we are in santiago moves you to tears as you see the people simply asking for help so that they can get back to work and have somewhere to sleep, eat and drink. nothing more. heidy, klaas, victor and i are going to stay in santiago for one night to buy supplies of water, tools and generators to take back and start helping to rebuild their homes.

for those of you who have asked about our houses, they survived reasonably well structurally, just a lot of broken glass and cracked concrete. thank you all for your support and messages. sorry for the group message like this, but we have so much to do that it is the only way to let everyone know what is going on.”

Het verhaal van Klaas Voget via Beachtelegraph.com

We are all right, in Santiago since Sunday night. The earthquake was absolutely frightening. I was alone in a house in Matanzas that is sitting on quite a steep hill. Victor was arriving at the evening in Santiago and wanted to come down to Matanzas the next morning. Robby Swift and his girlfirend Heidi were in a house 300m away from me. Around 3:30 in the night i woke up, as my bed was sliding around the room and i realized the earthquake. It took me three seconds to have my hand on the doorhandle of the front door, but i had the doors locked.

The house started to shake in all directions like a bull that just wants to throw you off. It was cracking and i heared glass exploding in the living room. From second to second it got stronger and stronger while i was hecticly trying to stick the right key into the lock of the shaking door in the darkness. There was a moment when i realized that this could be the end, as a concrete wall of the house broke and a part of the houses structure got disconnected and was flapping and hitting the side of the house. The power of this earthquake was just unbelieveble. Afer a minute i managed to unlock the door and flew out onto the road, shivering from the adrenaline...

I ran over to Robby and Heidi who were also outside their house with the eyes and mouth wide open. From the village down in the bay we heared people screaming and saw cars coming up the hill. Just a minute later we saw the wave going through the bay in the moonlight. It was a mass of whitewater that didn't even look that scary from the hill, but a little later people came running up the hill under shock with wet clothing that was ripped and injuries in their faces. There was no electricity and no reception for the cellphone. With the first light we saw the destruction. The wave destroyed some of the buildings in the bay completely.

Cars got washed out to sea and the mainraod is just covered with black sand and all kind of things from the houses. The road going north is blocked by a huge landslide. The water went out of the bay and filled up again a few times during the day. Also we had around 100 more or less strong aftershocks during the next day and night making it impossible for us to rest or sleep. Every time the houses started cracking and moving in unpredictable directions... A lot of the people slept outside or in tents the next nights. Sunday in the morning also the watersupply broke down and we decided to make our way to Santiago to get water, food, petrol and a power generator for us and the people of Matanzas.

Lots of the bridges are down, which turned the drive to Santiago into a longer journey, as we couldn't take the usual route. Santiago seems to be less affected be the earthquake, but also Victor reported us from his scary experience in the 6th floor of a 22-stories building and a huge panic everywhere. Today we'll drive back to Matanzas to bring water, help with the cleanup and start fixing the houses...

Robbys brother David has set up a donation account to help to rebuild the infrastructure for the friendly local people of Matanzas. We hope the windsurf world can help to give something back to the warm welcome the windsurfers from around the world always experience by the locals here.

Link naar de liefdadigheidsinstelling website: http://www.justgiving.com/ChileEarthquakeResponse