Talca, Chile, has been negatively impacted by both a major 2010 earthquake and the ensuing reconstruction process. Talca's poor have been forced out from their neighborhoods and relocated to remote areas where employment, public transportation, and basic services are limited. Based on extensive community development work in Talca, this article analyzes the dynamics that have led to these conditions and the insufficiently supported alternative community-based initiatives that could have allowed Talca to redevelop in more sustainable and equitable ways. Planners need to systemically understand the implications of programs often pushed in times of emergency as urgent and inevitable that may not favor a healthy long-term redevelopment of communities recovering from disasters, be politically savvy and courageous to denounce and resist them when necessary, and work with/for communities to define and promote more just and sustainable postdisaster futures.