[asac] Situation in Chile and Next Week's Meeting

[Richard Hills]

Dear all,

I am sure that everyone has heard about the earthquake.  Attached is a 
message that is just going out the teams in the northern hemisphere, 
which I thought I should pass on.  You will see that we are having to 
suspend operations fir the rest of this week while our staff deal with 
the aftermath.

It was a very dramatic event here in Santiago and we all got thoroughly 
shaken up, but in general the damage is amazingly light.  I have nothing 
but praise for Chilean building standards and the way that they are 
enforced.  There is however enormous damage further south, the full 
extent of which is only slowly being revealed.  I am glad to say that we 
have heard that Neal Nagar is OK.  He is of course based in Concepción, 
which is only ~100km from the epicenter.  I imagine that he must have 
had a horrendous experience and is no doubt still dealing with the 
consequences.

As far as next week's ASAC meeting in Tokyo is concerned it seems to me 
that we should go ahead with this even though some people may not be 
able to make it.  I think there were four of us planning to come from 
Chile - Neil, Alison Peck, Al Wootten and myself.  We do not know when 
the airport will reopen - at the moment it is not looking promising.  I 
suppose that Neil will not make it and Al's travel plans are already 
disrupted.  Our present thinking is that Alison should stay here in 
Chile and to get things back up and running again.  I will certainly do 
my very best to get to Tokyo.  Obviously people who are not able to get 
there will contribute by video or telecon to the extent possible.

Best wishes
   Richard

-- 
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Richard Hills                Phone: +56 2 467 6175
ALMA Project Scientist       Fax:   +56 2 467 6104
Av El Golf 40, Piso 18       Apmnt: +56 2 474 1642
Santiago, Chile              Mobile +56 97 608 1582
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