Flood of 2000 and afterwards...
Wednesday, 14 June 2000 Our street was a river, as we saw it early that morning. The rain continued all day, but it was gentler than it had been the previous night.		In the morning of the third day of rain in Santiago, we were awakened at 6:30 when the internal phone rang and we listened to a message in Spanish in which we understood the words for emergency, water, the elevator, 15 minutes, and vehicles. Artie got dressed quickly. Then another call came. This time we figured out that the street was flooded and that we needed to move the cars out of the subterranean garage and that the elevators aren't working because of the water. They still were at the first call, so maybe they were to be working for only 15 more minutes. Artie walked down the 16 flights of stairs to the garage and moved both cars outside. He found about an inch of water on the floor of our bodega (storage room) not from the rain coming down but from two or three leaking pipes! It was lucky that last year in a big rain storm, I had moved just about everything up off the floor on top of plastic boxes, shelves and a card table Artie huffed and puffed his way back up the 16 flights and we got another call in which we recognized the words for garage, full and of water. Not a happy thought!

Artie got ready to go to work, planning to take the metro rather than his car, since his parking spot at work is on the 4th sub level, and we had heard that the lower levels had been entirely filled with water in the last big flood. Before he had gone down 11 floors, he got a call on his cell phone informing him that the office didn't have power and it would be closed at least for that day. All schools (for two days) and many businesses were closed. The president declared the metropolitan region, Valparaíso, and certain provinces of the 6th region as disaster areas and encouraged everyone to stay at home if possible.

We watched the news on the TV and kept seeing images of flooded homes and streets and of people wading through the water carrying possessions, children and older people to safety. These three pictures are ones which appeared later in the newspapers on line.

We felt sorry for the growing number of people affected by the flood. We don't know the final count, but I imagine that it is over 40,000 people who had to move out of their flooded homes. Much of the coverage showed people bailing or sweeping mud and water out of homes and businesses. Later the stations included appeals with bank account numbers of agencies which were helping, so that people could easily make donations.

I tried taking some pictures from the TV coverage, but none of them were very good. The one on the right is included anyway, because it it of the subway turnstiles standing in muddy water at one station. These would still be a flight of stairs above the tracks. I was pleased to read later that the metro service was 90% normal the next day. Our local line was not affected, and free bus service was provided to transport passengers around the flooded stations.

Gray areas are wet, not in shadow!

On a personal level, we were fine. The water in the bodega (left) didn't seem to get any deeper, so our stored stuff wasn't damaged. The garage itself didn't get more than a few inches of water on the floor, although there was some damage to the walls and ceiling near the elevators. What happened was that the water ran down the sidewalk and filled the area in front of the front doors of the building (below).The drains at the steps couldn't take away the water fast enough, and the pressure of the water made it impossible to open the huge front doors. But the water rushed in underneath them and left several inches of water on the marble floors of the foyer. The water made its way down through the elevators, which were out of service for a day and a half.

Our building shows a water damage line on the bottom 5 or 6 inches of the front doors, and the finish on the marble tiles in the foyer needs to be completely stripped. Some of the paint in the the basement will need to be touched up. The damage here is minor in comparison to that in many homes and businesses in the city.

	By the afternoon on Wednesday, Artie and I were feeling stir crazy and we needed such staples as bread, cookies and bananas, so we put on our raincoats and ventured out in the rain to the grocery store.
	The couple in the distance wore plastic bags on on their feet to protect their shoes in this park in front of our local grocery store).

Since our elevators still weren't working, we had to use the steps. I felt a lot like Rocky when I made it back to the top of the stairs to the 16th floor! Now that we know we can do it, we've been walking up and down the stairs almost daily since the flood. My calves stopped aching 3 days after the sun came out!

The next day, Thursday, 15 June 2000, was much nicer. Early in the day, we actually saw the sun and patches of blue sky. The air was incredibly clean and clear, since the rain washed away the airborne dust and smog that are normal here in the winter.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Artie picked me up for a quick picnic lunch in the car on our way up to the top of Cerro San Cristobol to take pictures. We got a great view of the city, but the clouds obscured the tops of the snow covered Andes and got darker while we were there. It was raining again by the time Artie dropped me off at the apartment and went back to work. It didn't rain for long that day, and we all breathed a sigh of relief that the forecasts saying it would keep raining through Sunday were wrong!
Artie's office is in the building with the two brown horizontal stripes on the left side above.

Ski enthusiasts were thrilled that the first rainy day left over a meter of new snow in the mountains. Ski season officially opened that week, one week before the official start of winter here in the southern hemisphere. It was an exciting week. On Friday, we were awakened early again, but this time it wasn't the phone. At 4 AM we had a 5.0 earthquake. We were thankful that there were no injuries.

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