In February of 2010, an earthquake occurred in Chile which affected many Chilean cities, such as Concepcion. Concepcion is said to be the second largest city in Chile, located in an active area for earthquakes. According to an article from BBC News known as “Concepcion’s Troubled History” (published on 3/1/10) this city has had a long history of natural disasters. In 1550, Concepcion was established as a military settlement north of the Biobío River at the city of Penco. It all began when there were a series of tsunamis and earthquakes that occurred which “razed the city no less than five times between [the years] 1570 and 1750” (paragraph 5). After the natural disaster in 1751, the city had to move to another place in the Valley of Mocha and resides as the city of Concepcion today.
Most of the city of Concepcion was damaged by the violent earthquake of 1939 as well as the overwhelming earthquake of 1960 which is said to be the world’s strongest quake. After the earthquakes, looting (aka raids) would emerge amongst the city. According to Ricardo Leon, he wrote in an email that “On Sunday morning the looting began and the city became dangerous, so we decided to go to our parents in Los Ángeles, a two-hour drive away.” (We’re not talking about LA, California. It’s a city in ChileJ)
Due to the series of natural disasters, some people are on curfew (one million to be exact). The army was brought in to assist policemen who are stressed to control raiding activity. Also, there isn’t any drinking water in the city which continues to be cut off from the entire country of Chile. They are still without drinking water today. In response to the earthquake, the Government of Chile has established a government housing plan known as “Chile United to Build Better” which provides help for earthquake and tsunami households (roughly 196,00 households).