COPIAPO, Chile (AP) – It's a tale of two disasters, an unbelievable misfortune for a family. But this is the reality for Carola Narvaez. Her family survived Chile's big earthquake six months ago, yet the temblor destroyed the shipyard where her husband worked. That forced him to take a job four months ago in a copper and gold mine.

And now he is trapped far underground, along with 32 other miners, more than three weeks after an underground landslide left them with no way out.

The twin disasters have created a story of the challenges still faced by the poor in Chile despite two decades as Latin America's economic darling – a family facing extreme adversity, unwavering faith and ultimately a love that Narvaez says has only grown stronger by the bad luck.

Narvaez's husband, Raul Bustos, is a heavy-machinery mechanic whose skills have always been in demand. For years he has made a living repairing the equipment that rips copper ore, the lifeblood of Chile's economy, out of the earth, or helping build ships in ports along the nation's 4,000-mile (6,400-kilometer) coastline.

Six months ago Friday, the family was living in the port city of Talcahuano, 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of the capital, where Raul was working for Chilean shipbuilder Asmar.

Like most Chileans, the couple were sound asleep when one of the most powerful earthquakes registered in a century struck the central coast February 27. What the earthquake did not knock down, the tsunami it triggered washed away. While the family's home survived, ships in Asmar's yards were pushed into the street and the builder's operations destroyed.

Having to support his wife and two small children, Bustos looked to northern Chile, where mines dot the barren lunar landscape. Two months later he found his way to the San Jose mine, one of hundreds of midsize operations digging into the rocky, red earth in search of copper, gold and other minerals.

Narvaez stayed behind with their children, 5-year-old Maria Paz and 3-year-old Vicente. When word arrived of the August 5 collapse at the mine, she left the kids with her parents and rushed to the mine site and has camped out since. "In the earthquake we just had to keep on living. We had our lives,'' Narvaez said as she sat in a tent camp just outside the gates leading to the mine where Raul is buried 2,200 feet (700 meters) underground.

"This is the same. It is producing much anguish, isolation, fear. But we're alive. My husband is alive down in that mine, and we will have another happy ending.''