Chile Hit by 8.8 Magnitude Earthquake, Tsunami Warnings Across the Americas and Pacific

Early this morning at 3.35AM near one of Chile’s major cities of Conception, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit the country. The effect of the quake destroyed many of Chile’s historic buildings and other structures in the capital Santiago de Chile. The main highway linking the north and south of the country has reportedly been greatly damaged. Currently over 147 victims have been reported, but information on Conception and the damage to the towns near the main earthquake zone is not fully detailed as power problems due to the quake has limited the ability to get information outside of Chile.

The actual quake was felt as far as Buenos Aires, but the main concern now for non-Chileans has been a Tsunami effect that has already hit Chile and islands near the mainland of Chile and South America. So far the damage from Tsunami has been limited, but warning about possible Tsunamis have been issued as far as Mexico and Hawaii, and even as far as Asia. Same reports have come out about Tsunami’s landing in Mexico and Central America, and countries closer to Chile’s quake like Peru and Colombia but information is limited at this point.

Chile was hit by the largest recorded earthquake in history at 9.0 in the same area of the country in 1960. Unlike Haiti who’s quake was unexpected as one had not occurred for over 200 years before 2010, Chile and its structures have been designed and built to withstand quakes, and emergency plans and sophisticated Search and Rescue equipment exists in Chile to deal with quakes that are well known in Chile. Aid efforts in Concepcion, a city of 670,000 people and the town very close to the quake zone, Talca, are underway as few structures, even those earthquake resistant one can withstand an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. People trapped under collapsed structures often were inside their homes as the earthquake occurred in the middle of the night while most were asleep in their homes.

Despite the Chile quake being the 5th largest in history, and being 800 times stronger than the earthquake in Haiti, the impact of the quake in Haiti had three major effects, that being poverty, location and preparation. Chile has been hard hit, but since 1960 the expectation and building of structures that could likely survive a quake have become the norm. The tragedy of the destruction of Chile’s historic structures, which have been around for more than 400 years through many earthquakes, but did not survive today shows the strength of the quake. Reports now coming out of Chile’s second city, Concepcion, show a city that could do nothing to help survive the quake, even with buildings built to survive the quake and many reports of collapsed structures have been issued.

In Haiti the level of poverty did little to encourage structures that were sturdy as well as earthquake resistant. The location of the Haiti quake also was close to the capital of the country where many shantytowns were established. Those two factors combined with the fear of hurricanes and lack of expectation of an earthquake literally destroyed Port-au-Prince. In Concepcion, the 1960s quake levelled much of the city and new constructions in the city have done its best to withstand a major earthquake. Current pictures of the city put of Canal 13 and TVN in Chile are currently showing the destruction in the city, but right now no one knows the full effect of the damages in the city or the rest of the country. Please keep aware of developments in the story.

For a live feed from Canal 13 Chile, see here.

For info on Disaster Relief from Google Crisis Response page, see here.