By Adam Ray
A Bay of Plenty man who joined an armed guard to stop looters after Chile’s earthquake is now helping to rebuild a ruined coastal town.
Ben Walters and another Kiwi, Michael Hogan, are building wooden homes for families in the town of Copquecura – where the earthquake destroyed ninety per cent of houses.
Walters and his Chilean wife Daniela Hernandez huddled in the hallway of their apartment in the city of Los Angeles when the magnitude 8.8 quake struck. The seventh most powerful quake ever recorded, it rumbled the south of Chile for a minute and a half. “We were getting thrown from wall to wall; they must have been moving 30 centimetres.” The couple fled their apartment when the violent shaking stopped and the next day drove to Cabrera, where Hernandez’ father ran a supermarket. They arrived to find the supermarket was bare. Looters had smashed their way in and stolen everything, from basic foodstuffs to electrical gear. “They took the seats; they even took the EFTPOS machines.”
By nightfall, the only thing that looters had not ransacked was the supermarket depot on the outskirts of town. Walters joined other members of the Hernandez clan on armed guard outside. “We had more guns than the cops did.” Walters says they put up metal barricades and made Molotov cocktails. When utes carrying the looters approached, the defenders fired shots into the night air. It was enough to keep the depot safe. Walters says he still cannot understand why the looting and lawlessness took hold. “The earthquake felt big but the human destruction took the shock out of it.” His anger towards the looters hasn’t stopped him pitching in to help the recovery effort.
Walters, from Maketu in the Bay of Plenty, and his friend Hogan are both English teachers in the city of Los Angeles. But for the next few weeks they will be builders. Hogan has drawn up a plan to building five temporary wooden homes for families in Copquecura. Hogan’s a regular visitor here – drawn by its almost perfect surf beach. It was the closest town to the earthquake’s epicentre. The adobe homes that many residents lived in simply could not cope with its power. Up to ninety per cent of houses were destroyed or condemned by the quake. Many of those who have houses in the seaside town are now living in tents on higher ground.
The two New Zealanders have drawn up a plan to house some families with young children. A NZ$10,000 grant from the New Zealand embassy will provide tools and building material to put together ‘mediaguas’ or wooden huts. Hogan says the huts will see the families through the colder and wetter winter months that are fast approaching. If they can get any more money, the pair will build more houses in Copquecura.
Hogan says he’d always promised himself that he’d help out in a situation like this. “The way I see it’s my turn to buy the world a few beers”. Walters nods in agreement. They have work to do.
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