As Chile rocked with the effects of a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that hit the country Saturday, Northwestern students abroad in Chile and applying in Evanston felt the aftershock.
In the Santiago area, where SESP senior Maddie Orenstein lives with her host mother, relative amounts of damage like cracks in the walls were apparent, but no major structural damage had occurred, she said.
“The main concern has been the height of the apartment buildings,” Orenstein said. “I am on the 13th floor, so I am right at the level where some people are moving out to live with friends and family for a bit while others are staying.”
Orenstein said she plans to stay put for the time being. She is not on an NU-affiliated study abroad program, so the Study Abroad Office has not been in touch with her.
For students studying in Chile through one of the three programs NU offers, communication was as instant as possible in the aftermath, said Bill Anthony, director of the Study Abroad Office.
“The reaction was immediate,” Anthony said. “On Saturday morning we were conferencing with the programs to account for all of the students.”
All students on NU programs in Chile have been identified as safe, either through direct communication with the Study Abroad Office or from secondary reports the programs have provided, Anthony said. Contacting some students directly has been difficult because of the recent instability of Internet connections and cell phone service in the country, he said.
The Study Abroad Office has utilized International SOS, a company which offers outsourced customer care, including medical assistance and security services. Since last year, all students must register with the program before studying abroad, Anthony said. In addition to providing helpful updates from abroad, the service offers reports and travel advice to students abroad who have computer access, he said.
Students currently in Santiago with the Chilean Universities Program, sponsored by the Institute for Study Abroad at Butler University, are with their host families and waiting for orientation activities to resume, said Amy Blume, director of external relations with IFSA-Butler, in an e-mail Monday.
Orientation activities will start a few days late at the three universities, but classes will resume while the buildings are checked for structural damage. Accommodations will be made if the universities are deemed unsafe and remain closed, Blume said.
“Students will not be pulled from the program, nor has any student asked to return home,” she said. “If universities are delayed, we will be making arrangements for continuing the classes and language instruction at a different location if necessary.”
NU students currently in Chile should understand the country has a history of big earthquakes, said Prof. Seth Stein, a Earth and Planetary Sciences department faculty member.
“Geological things continue in the same way for billions of years,” he said. “Chile will continue to have big earthquakes every 50 years or so.”
While scientists knew the most recent earthquake would occur “on a timescale of 100 years or so,” they had no way to more closely determine when the quake would take place, Stein said.
McCormick sophomore Beau Garrett said he expects there to be no trouble with his plans to study abroad next fall.
“Obviously I’ll be keeping an eye on the developments down there,” Garrett said. “This is the only program I applied to, so if they let me, I’m still planning to go.”
Students should understand anywhere they would choose to study abroad has some inherent dangers, Stein said.
“Natural disasters can take place anywhere,” he said. “I wouldn’t be any more concerned about traveling to Chile than I am about traveling to California.”[email protected]
