Mennonite Weekly Review

PUERTO MONTT, Chile — When an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile Feb. 27, Dustin and Sarah Gingrich’s house swayed from side to side.

Believers gather in Puerto Montt, Chile, to pray for their country after the devastating earthquake on Feb. 27. — Photo by Sarah Gingrich/EMM

The Eastern Mennonite Missions workers said it felt like they were “riding waves” for two to three minutes.

In another part of the city, EMM teammates Michael and Nancy Hostetter and their four children woke with a start as their three-story home “swayed like a ship at sea.”

Further south on the island of Chiloe, another EMM couple, Travis and Bekii Kisamore, ran outside as the ground beneath their feet felt more like “a boat on rough waters.”

The earthquake, which was 500 times stronger than the one that struck Haiti, was the fifth strongest earthquake ever recorded. The death toll will likely exceed 800, and hundreds of thousands of people are homeless.

All members of the EMM team are OK. EMM released an immediate grant of $5,000 and is appealing for additional funds for pressing needs for food, water and shelter as well as long-term needs for reconstruction.

“We are currently exploring ways they can assist the country at this time of national crisis,” said Steve Shank, EMM’s representative to the Americas. “An EMM team of four or five will be going traveling north to Talcahuano, a town that has been very hard hit, with much-needed supplies of food, water and tents. It’s an exploratory trip as well, to see what the needs are and how we should be involved.”

The hardest-hit area was around Concepcion, approximately 380 miles north of Puerto Montt.

“In southern Chile fuel is being rationed, and there is a definite shortage of food and supplies,” Sarah Gingrich said. “Chile is in a crisis right now. Convoys carrying fuel have been hijacked and there’s been a lot of looting in some areas. There is widespread panic because people don’t feel safe.”

The government has declared a state of catastrophe and has sent in troops to some of the most affected areas.