Worried Chileans in Utah seek news of families

PROVO — A ringing cell phone awakened Alejandra Guerra-Jensen at 4 a.m. Saturday.

When she saw it was her family calling from Santiago, Chile, she knew something was wrong.

Guerra-Jensen's mother, Guellerma Aravena, told her there had been an early morning earthquake so powerful that it shook the whole family out of bed.

At first, they ignored it; Chile has lots of earthquakes. But when it didn't stop after a few seconds, Guerra-Jensen's mother, father and two brothers, 12 and 24, held each other in a door frame of their fourth-floor apartment and prayed.

Guerra-Jensen, a Chile native now living in Provo, said she has been glued to the television since getting the call, watching the news and keeping her phone at her side.

"My mom said it felt like a wave from right to left and then up and down," said Guerra-Jensen, whose immediate and extended family lives in Santiago and on the coast.

When the shaking finally stopped, everything was dark, Guerra-Jensen's mother reported. Miraculously, nothing in the apartment was broken.

When Guerra-Jensen's family looked outside, the city was still dark. Unlike the sunny day before, Santiago was covered in a thick fog, they told her.

Through the fog, they saw what looked like bolts of lightening shooting through the sky. Aravena told Guerra-Jensen she thought it was a storm, but later when they left the house, the family realized it was sparks coming from fallen power lines and electricity towers.

As they surveyed the damage, Guerra-Jensen said her family was grateful that many of the buildings in Santiago are earthquake-resistant. Most structures were still standing, they said, though several sustained cracks and some standing facades had broken buildings behind them.

Mario Guerra Sr., Guerra-Jensen's father, had a work meeting scheduled Saturday. Since his family was OK, he decided to go and see if anyone needed help, Guerra-Jensen said. On the way, he found cars abandoned, some with belongings piled on top of them, cracked buildings and more destruction.

"My mom said, 'It's like the things you see in movies, but sometimes you just don't believe you're living that,' " Guerra-Jensen said.