iChat Crash Wiped Out My Buddy List

As the title says, my iChat crashed and my buddy list was wiped out. I tried sending an IM to someone but it never sent, so I tried to send it again but everything locked up, became unresponsive, so I went into the Force Quit menu and stopped iChat. When I restarted iChat up again, all of my contacts were gone.

Is there a way to recover them or am I out of luck?