Seaside villagers lost homes and livelihoods in Chile quake

Seaside villagers lost homes and livelihoods in Chile quake



By Sara Sidner, CNN
March 2, 2010 7:53 a.m. EST

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/02/sidner.chile.survivor/index.html?hpt=C1

Concepcion, Chile (CNN) -- Bellamira Neira sits staring at the belongings that chronicle a lifetime, sprawled out on the sand for any stranger to see.

Just three days ago she, her husband, two sons and in-laws were all living side by side in small colorful huts on the seashore.

They didn't have much, but they made their living off the sea and lived by the seashore together, and that was enough.

But all their homes were snatched from them in a series of natural disasters all in one day.

First an 8.8-magnitude earthquake shook them awake. A few hours later a series of three waves slammed into their homes knocking the already damaged houses around like they were toddlers' toys.

"I tell myself the only reason I am thankful is that I am healthy and I am alive," Neira said.

In her life, that hasn't always been the case. She suffers from depression. She is worried because the sea swallowed her medication, along with her husband's livelihood.

"I lost my materials, my scuba diving gear, the nets, my boat is missing," her fisherman husband Jose Araya Rojas said.