Devastating News from the Futaleufu

Volcan Chaiten erupting on May 1st, 2008

Last week a volcano in Southern Chile erupted and devastated the communities in its vicinity. Thousands of people have been evacuated and their lives changed forever. During my travels in Chile, I spent many nights in the town of Chaiten, as well as over a month in the Futaleufu Valley, so this news definitely hits close to home.

To help you better understand the situation, I am copying an email I received from Jon Clark, my friend and fellow instructor, who I spent a good portion of my past trip living with on his land in the Futaleufu valley.

"Friends and Family,

I hope you all are all doing well and enjoying your lives. I write this evening with some horrible news from the Futaleufu valley and the surrounding areas. Last Thursday night a volcano only six miles from the town of Chaiten erupted unexpectedly and covered the Futaleufu valley with tremendous amounts of volcanic ash. Since then, the volcano has continued to spew ash leading to accumulations of over one foot in Futaleufu. This has caused the evacuation of the entire valley including the towns of Futaleufu and Chaiten due to lack of water, food, and principally fresh air. Experts say that this type of eruption can last up to seven weeks and may also lead to partial destruction of Chaiten due to lava flows.

There is very little that can be done to preserve the livelihood of the Futa residents that many of you know. All they can do is flee the valley and save their own lives and their family’s lives. The devastating part is that they will more than likely have very little to return to once the ash seizes to fall. Livestock will perish, drinking water will be contaminated and the soil will not be fertile for years to come. I am afraid that life as we knew it in Futaleufu, as of last Friday, will never be the same.

The Chilean government has moved in to aid the victims in evacuating and also has plans to evacuate the 25,000 head of cattle that have been left to perish from dehydration and starvation. I am very pleased that Michele Bachelet is making it a top priority to try and save the only source of income many Futaleufu residents have, but I fear the reality of effectively evacuating this quantity of livestock is just not a reality. This event has the potential to permanently displace the valley residents leaving them to begin their lives from scratch in a foreign land.

My main concern right now is to make sure that all of my closest friends (many of which you all have met) are safely out of the Futaleufu valley and have a place to live, food to eat, and most importantly know that they have our support. Only time will tell of the long-term effects that this will have on their lives and we will deal with them as they come up.

As of right now I plan on traveling to Futaleufu (I am at NOC right now) sometime in the next few weeks and making sure that my friends are all provided with the basic necessities to survive while all of this settles down. Along with Aren and Sarah Rane (futa neighbors of mine from New Mexico), we have set up a relief fund that we will use to provide our friends and neighbors with supplies, shelter and anything else they may need. As many of you saw with our dear friend Tuto, when we work together, we can change lives. Below is an address where any donations can be sent to and deposited in the fund. Anything at all will be greatly appreciated.

I am very saddened to have to write with such bad news, but we have to come together and aid our friends in an extreme time of need. Feel free to call me anytime to find out more details and I will try and keep you all posted as I hear updated news from Chile. If you want to read about it just google, Volcan Chaiten, and you will get hundreds of pictures and news reports.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Jon Clark"

Here is the account information-

Checks payable to:
Futaleufu Relief Fund
P.O. Box 2344
Taos, NM 87571

Bank info:
ABA#307083665
New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union
P.O. Box 8530 Albuquerque, NM 87196
Account # 0029724010

I can tell you from my experience living down there, even for the short time that I did, that many of the people in the areas surrounding the volcano live, in almost every sense of the word, off of their land. So its hard to imagine the struggles they are facing now and will face for the rest of their lives due to this natural disaster. Any and all donations you are able to give to help the wonderful people of the Futaleufu valley survive during this unfortunate time would be greatly appreciated.