Mother-in-law's screams wake couple

Russell Mason. Photo / Supplied

New Zealander Russell Mason awoke in his Santiago apartment to violent shaking, the sound of what he thought was heavy rain, and to the screams of his mother-in-law trying to alert them to the earthquake shaking their building.

Mr Mason, 27, had been out for a few drinks with his Chilean wife, Marcia, and was sleeping heavily when the earthquake struck at 3.34am, local time.

"I half woke and felt the shaking and I just thought it was weird how the bed was moving and it sounded like it was raining really hard.

"Then I heard the mother-in-law bashing on the door and she couldn't get the door open because it had jammed in the doorway, and she was panicking and screaming at us to get up and open the door."

When she finally wrestled the door open and flicked on the light, Mr Mason immediately snapped out of his slumber and dragged his wife to the safety of the door frame.

"As soon as we jumped out of bed, the electricity died so we were blind again. But we made our way to the doorway, and by that time the earthquake had reached full strength. There was a long shaking, a strong swaying from side to side, like being on a boat in a storm, except scarier.

"When you're sitting on the sixth floor of a 24-storey concrete building, all you think is that the building is coming down on top of you. So we were tightly huddled in the doorway praying for dear life, and then it started to cool down a bit, and then slowly rolled to a stop.

"All I know is that it was certainly pretty scary."

The initial shock froze them in the doorway for a few minutes. Then they fumbled their way into some clothes and out of the apartment, taking the stairs to the lobby area where about 70 others had gathered with radios and emergency lighting.

"There were people who couldn't get out because their doors had jammed. Some of them had to break the door off to get out.

"We went across the road to a big open park. We figured the safest place to be was in an open place where nothing could fall on you. We were just sitting there at 4am wondering what was happening - is it safe to go back inside, is the building going to collapse? We had no idea."

But they were getting thirsty so after half an hour, they made a dash back up to their apartment to get some water, as the electricity continued to flick on and off.

They took their car and returned to the park, where they stayed listening to the radio.

"We waited till the sun came up and then we went back. A lot of paint had come off the walls, and you could see where the wall had moved and where the wallpaper had been pulled off.

"Some tiles had been ripped off the walls and smashed on the floor. But we were surprised at how well the apartment held together."

Large chunks of plastic coating had peeled off from the building's exterior and crashed to the ground.

"There's a crack that runs from the bottom floor of the building all the way to the top floor. In places it's only just noticeable, but by the eighth floor you could stick your fingers into it."

He said the aftermath has been quite surreal, as rattling pictures on the wall announced another after-shock.

"Looking out the window, it doesn't look any different. It was all so quick. It did happen, but it's kind of hard to believe.

"There are some sleeping in the community lounge downstairs who don't want to return to their homes. Others are sleeping in the streets because they don't want to go home. Their interior walls have fallen in so they don't want to sleep there in case their houses fall down on top of them.

"One of our friends had stitches in his leg because he had to break a door down to get out, but apart from that we don't know anyone who's been hurt or killed.

"I've been in touch with my family in New Zealand and half of them didn't even know about it. I sent an email saying, 'in case you're wondering we're all okay', and I got some messages back saying: 'Why? What happened?"'