Earthquake Relief — 68th Voyage participants offer support to Chile

New report from Peace Boat’s 68th Global Voyage:

March 3, 2010 Earthquake Relief – 68th Voyage participants offer support to Chile

The epicenter of the earthquake was far enough away from Valparaiso the city didn’t suffer the same damage as Concepción and Talca. Peace Boat sailed away from the port of Punta Arenas, in the south of Chile, on the evening of February 25, and headed towards its next port of call, Valparaiso. The ship was far off the Chilean shore on the morning of February 27 when participants learned of the catastrophic magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck the heart of the country and the subsequent tsunami that crashed into the coast.

The quake and the tsunami affected Valparaiso’s port significantly, but repairs began almost immediately. As news of the destruction slowly developed people onboard reacted not only with shock, but also with remembrance and compassion. For many people onboard, this was an all too familiar story. Fifteen years ago this past January, Japan experienced similar devastation in Kobe during the Hanshin earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale: The Chile quake hit with a force 300 times stronger and ranked as the sixth strongest in recorded history.

Cash donations from the spur-of-the-moment relief campaign totaled almost $5,400. “My initial reaction was ‘What can we do and what should we do?’” says 68th Global Voyage director Hidaka Shinsuke. Peace Boat has carried out a number of disaster relief projects in the past decade and a half, including efforts in Kashmir, Pakistan, after the 2005 earthquake; Biloxi, United States, following Hurricane Katrina; and in both Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the aftermath of the Sumatra earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami. Mr Hidaka consulted with staff member Yamamoto Takashi, who has organised most of the NGO’s previous aid efforts, about what the organisation could do while travelling in such close proximity to the disaster zone. This was the first time a major natural disaster has occurred in an area where Peace Boat was about to stop.

Fuji Takayuki was one of the many participants and staff onboard the 68th voyage who helped prepare donations to go to shore. On March 1, the day before the ship’s scheduled arrival in Valparaiso – approximately 320 km north of the epicentre – Peace Boat staff and volunteers organized a relief campaign, assembling essential goods such as warm clothes and blankets. Above and beyond the 824 items collected in less than an hour, participants donated almost US$5,400.

Chilean partner organisation, CODEFF, arranged a boat to come to Peace Boat to collect the aid goods participants assembled. Peace Boat, and its travel agency Japan Grace, collaborated with Chilean partner organization CODEFF to determine what would be needed during the immediate rescue period. “Only the local people can tell us what they need,” Mr Yamamoto says adding, that he decided what would be useful and also available onboard. “Day by day, needs of the people change.”

Local workers volunteered their time to load the truck transporting the relief supplies. Because of frequent aftershocks, S.S. The Oceanic didn’t dock in Valparaiso, but instead anchored further out in the harbour. Mr Yamamoto and Bernardo Zentilli, president of CODEFF, negotiated with customs officers to bring the goods ashore, to be taken onwards to the extremely hard hit cities of Concepción and Talca. “There, we have offices that are sufficiently equipped to distribute this carefully. We’re very strict about the way this is going to reach the people, “says Mr Zentilli. “Both cities are very strongly damaged.”

CODEFF members planned to take the blankets and other items to Talca and Concepción as soon as travel to the devastated cities was safe. Peace Boat and Japan Grace staff Watanabe Mai, Oaku Yuko, Yamamoto Takao and web reporter Nick Logan accompanied the relief supplies to the port by tender boat. Mr Zentilli, who has been onboard previous voyages as a guest educator, sent his thanks and appreciation back to the 68th Voyage’s participants for their quick action. Both Mr Hidaka and Mr Yamamoto were impressed with the staff and participants’ efforts as well, and neither expected such success with the project. According to various news reports, more than 800 people have died so far and the quake affected more than 1.5 million homes. Both outgoing-President Michele Bachelet and President-elect Sebastián Piñera anticipate reconstruction will take a few years. This is the worst disaster Chile has faced in 50 years, since a magnitude 9.5 earthquake – the strongest quake ever recorded – struck the country in 1960. With translation assistance by Fujimatsu Rin. * CODEFF – Committee for the Defence of Florae and Fauna – is an environmental protection agency based in Santiago, with offices in Valparaiso, Talca and Concepción.