Chile earthquake: massive 8.3 magnitude tremor strikes Santiago – rolling report. One million people evacuated across Chile as tsunami warning issued for Peru, Chile, New Zealand, California and Hawaii. The undersecretary for the ministry of the interior and public security says five people have killed and one million people across Chile have been evacuated.He confirms that earlier report of a 4.5m wave hitting Conquimbo, and says waves of up to 2m have buffeted Tongoy, both towns in region closest to the earthquake’s epicentre. The image below is from Tongoy. from the United States National Tsunami Warning Centre, shows how the energy generated by this 8.3 magnitude quake might spread across the Pacific. The colour indicates the predicted waves above sea level in centimetres.
My colleague Jonathan Franklin has been listening the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, address the country. She confirmed that three people had been killed and the towns of Coquimbo and Tongoy were heavily flooded. Both areas have been declared catastrophe zones and the army will be sent in to prevent looting. Bachelet will visit both towns tomorrow. Franklin said that despite the earthquake striking so close to Chile’s independence day on 18 September, the casualties appear to be low, and the damage confined to walls and roofs - “and not entire towns getting flattened”, as occurred in February 2010.Chile, one of the most earthquake prone countries on earth, has learned from past tremors: new buildings must be able to survive 9.0 magnitude earthquakes and the country has instituted a tsunami warning system, activated for the first time today. Franklin says Bachelet’s political fortunes are intertwined with earthquakes. She was perceived to have “completely bungled” the response to the February 2010 quake, which killed 525 people. “She was slow to respond, she did not have a good tsunami warning in place,” he says.
Now, “she’s at the all time lowest approval rating for any Chilean president, she’s at the low 20s, her credibility and leadership is being questioned heavily”, he says. “All eyes will be on her to see if she learned the lessons from last time.” In Fiji, where it’s about 2.48pm, the government has warned the first wave generated by this earthquake is expected to arrive around midnight. It advises “no immediate action”. - theguardian.
