Chile rocked by deadly quake, tsunami warning to wide area
February 28, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
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A MASSIVE 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile early yesterday, killing more than 120 people, collapsing buildings and setting off a tsunami.
President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, but the death toll was rising quickly.
Chilean TV showed devastating images from the country's second city of Concepcion of collapsed homes, a large building completely engulfed in flames, and injured people lying in the streets or on stretchers.
It said the earthquake destroyed many roads, making it impossible for vehicles to get through, and there was no electricity or water.
Tsunami warnings were issued over a wide area, including South America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.
Huge wave
A tsunami warning, the highest alert level, was issued for Hawaii, where emergency officials waked wake residents with sirens alerting them to the impending waves.
In Chile, a huge wave reached a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 660 kilometers off the Chilean coast, said President Michele Bachelet. There were no immediate reports of major damage there, she added.
She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile but urged Chileans not to panic.
"Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately," she said.
Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast - 19 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 - the US Geological Survey reported.
Bachelet urged people to avoid travelling, as traffic lights were down, to avoid causing more fatalities.
In the capital, Santiago airport was shut and will remain closed for at least the next 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal has suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. Television images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.
In Concepcion, nurses and residents pushed some of the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms.
Residents were rummaging through rubble in the coastal city of Santo Domingo, in the region of Valparaiso. One resident said 40 buildings had collapsed but that he didn't believe there were any deaths.
The quake hit 325 kilometers southwest of Santiago, at a depth of 35 kilometers at 3:34am, the US Geological Survey reported. The epicenter was just 115 kilometers from Concepcion, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river, and 95 kilometers from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.
Marco Vidal, a program director for Grand Circle Travel who was traveling with a group of 34 Americans, was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck.
"All the things started to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor. And it was moving like from south to north, oscillated. I felt terrified," he said.
Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train.
Lamps flew off
"But then I thought, oh, there's no train here. And then the lamps flew off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed," she said. "It was scary, but there really wasn't any panic. Everybody kind of stayed orderly and looked after one another," Iocono said.
In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. An apartment building's two-level parking lot also flattened onto the ground floor, smashing about 50 cars.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The 9.5-magnitude quake killed 1,655 people. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.
President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, but the death toll was rising quickly.
Chilean TV showed devastating images from the country's second city of Concepcion of collapsed homes, a large building completely engulfed in flames, and injured people lying in the streets or on stretchers.
It said the earthquake destroyed many roads, making it impossible for vehicles to get through, and there was no electricity or water.
Tsunami warnings were issued over a wide area, including South America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.
Huge wave
A tsunami warning, the highest alert level, was issued for Hawaii, where emergency officials waked wake residents with sirens alerting them to the impending waves.
In Chile, a huge wave reached a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 660 kilometers off the Chilean coast, said President Michele Bachelet. There were no immediate reports of major damage there, she added.
She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile but urged Chileans not to panic.
"Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately," she said.
Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast - 19 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 - the US Geological Survey reported.
Bachelet urged people to avoid travelling, as traffic lights were down, to avoid causing more fatalities.
In the capital, Santiago airport was shut and will remain closed for at least the next 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal has suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. Television images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.
In Concepcion, nurses and residents pushed some of the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms.
Residents were rummaging through rubble in the coastal city of Santo Domingo, in the region of Valparaiso. One resident said 40 buildings had collapsed but that he didn't believe there were any deaths.
The quake hit 325 kilometers southwest of Santiago, at a depth of 35 kilometers at 3:34am, the US Geological Survey reported. The epicenter was just 115 kilometers from Concepcion, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river, and 95 kilometers from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.
Marco Vidal, a program director for Grand Circle Travel who was traveling with a group of 34 Americans, was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck.
"All the things started to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor. And it was moving like from south to north, oscillated. I felt terrified," he said.
Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train.
Lamps flew off
"But then I thought, oh, there's no train here. And then the lamps flew off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed," she said. "It was scary, but there really wasn't any panic. Everybody kind of stayed orderly and looked after one another," Iocono said.
In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. An apartment building's two-level parking lot also flattened onto the ground floor, smashing about 50 cars.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The 9.5-magnitude quake killed 1,655 people. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.
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