Huge Quake Hits Chile, Sparks Tsunami Alert

[Chad]

Huge quake hits Chile, sparks tsunami alert

More than 120 dead; dangerous waves threaten countries around Pacific


Marco Fredes / Reuters
By ROBERTO CANDIA and EVA VERGARA
The Associated Press

Saturday, February 27, 2010; 12:41 PM

TALCA, Chile -- One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Chile on Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean - roughly a quarter of the globe.

Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about as if shaken by a giant.
It was the strongest earthquake to hit Chile in 50 years. President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, a number that was rising quickly.

The quake shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, and was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil - 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east.

In Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, furniture toppled as the earth shook for more than a minute in something akin to major airplane turbulence. The historic center of town largely collapsed, but most of the buildings of adobe mud and straw were businesses that were not inhabited during the 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT) quake.

Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters.
Collapsed roads and bridges complicated north-south travel in the narrow Andean nation. Electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas - meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying areas.

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.

The jolt set off a tsunami that raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga. Tahitian officials banned all traffic on roads less than 1,600 feet (500 meters) from the sea and people in several low-lying island nations were urged to find higher ground.

Hawaii could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. EST, 2119 GMT), according to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Officials evacuated people and boats near the water and closed shore-side Hilo International Airport.
Experts said tsunami waves were likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The U.S. West Coast and Alaska, too, were threatened. In all, 53 nations and territories were subject to tsunami warnings.

Waves 6 feet (1.8 meter) above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23 minutes after the quake, and President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast.

Bachelet said she had no information on the number of people injured in the quake. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile but said the government has not asked for assistance from other countries.

"The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have," she said.

Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast - 41 of them magnitude 5 or greater - in the 10 hours after the quake. Six were sizable quakes in their own right, magnitude 6 or greater.

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. A bridge just outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car flipped upside down. Several hospitals were evacuated due to earthquake damage, Bachelet said.

Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours after the passenger terminal suffered major damage, airport director Eduardo del Canto told Chilean television. TV images showed smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.
Santiago's subway was shut as well and hundreds of buses were trapped at a terminal by a damaged bridge, Transportation and Telecommunications Minister said. He urged Chileans to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.

In Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city and only 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the epicenter, nurses and residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms. A 15-story building collapsed, leaving only a few floors intact.
"I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here," said Fernando Abarzua, marveling that he escaped with no major injuries. He said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake, "but he keeps shouting, saying he's OK."

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 start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor," he said. "I felt terrified."

Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train.

"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."
The quake struck after concert-goers had left South America's leading music festival in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, where organizers canceled performances on Saturday, the final night of the festival. But it caught partiers leaving a disco.

"It was very bad. People were screaming. Some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them," Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa.

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.

Saturday's quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.
---
Eva Vergara reported from Santiago, Chile. Associated Press Television News cameraman Mauricio Cuevas and writer Eduardo Gallardo in Santiago, and AP writer Sandy Kozel in Washington contributed to this story.

Tsunami Danger

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Aftershocks in Santiago

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[Chad]

Ongoing developments in the Chilean earthquake and the tsunami warnings that followed. All times are local in Chile, which is two hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the United States.

(CNN) -- 2:36 p.m. -- The earliest estimated arrival time for a wave that could affect Hawaii is 11:05 a.m. HST(4:05 p.m. ET), according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The center had earlier reported the first wave could arrive at 11:19 a.m. HST.
2:15 p.m. -- The government of a Chilean province says a large wave killed three people and 10 were missing on the island of Juan Fernandez, 400 miles off the coast of Chile.
2:02 p.m. -- U.S. State Department now says two of its Embassy employees in Santiago are missing, after earlier reporting that all 118 were accounted for.
1 p.m. -- Evacuation sirens sounded in Hawaii at 6 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) alerting residents and visitors of a possible tsunami. The earliest estimated arrival for a wave that could affect Hawaii is 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. ET), according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
12:40 p.m. -- Death toll in Chile rises to 122, according to President-elect Sebastian Pinera.

11:48 a.m. -- Chilean government says the death toll is 82.
11:37 a.m. -- United Nations Secretery-General Ban Ki-moon says, "The United Nations system, through its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is on standby to offer rapid assistance to the Chilean government and people."
11:09 a.m. -- U.S. Embassy in Santiago says all 118 Embassy diplomats and employees are accounted for.
10:44 a.m. -- Santiago's airport was closed for at least the next 24 hours, head of airport operations Eduardo de Canto told Chile's TVN. The terminal suffered severe damage, but the runways were operational, he said. 9:48 a.m.
10:05 a.m. -- World Vision is sending supplies, including tarps, blankets and collapsable water containers into Chile with the help of Bolivia.

9:19 a.m. -- The United States is ready to help Chile and is closely monitoring the ongoing situation, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
9:14 a.m. -- The American Red Cross has staff in shelters run by the local government in Hawaii and is also monitoring the potential for a tsunami, spokesman Jonathan Aiken said.
8:58 a.m. -- U.S. military officials say they are assessing the tsunami threat for Hawaii and whether military assets, such as ships or people, will need to evacuate the area.

8:10 a.m. -- Numerous aftershocks -- with the strongest at magnitude 6.9 -- were felt within hours of the initial quake, the USGS said.
8:10 a.m. -- Numerous tsunami waves have been reported in the Pacific, with one reaching as high as 7.7 feet in the central Chile coastal town of Talcahuano, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
7:39 a.m. -- Buildings had partially collapsed in Concepcion, where rubble was strewn onto the streets, video from TVN showed. At least two fires also broke out, engulfing multistory buildings, TVN reported. The ceiling of a parking lot in the Las Condes neighborhood of Santiago came crashing down, pinning at least 50 cars underneath.
7:39 a.m. -- The capital lost electricity and basic services including water and telephones. People scavenged for supplies in supermarkets and pharmacies, TVN reports.
7:37 a.m. -- Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declares areas of catastrophe similar to a state of emergency, which allows her to cut through red tape to get aid. "I urge people in coastal zones to move to higher ground," she says.

3:44 a.m. -- Tsunami warning extended to the entire Pacific, including Hawaii. A tsunami warning is the highest level of a tsunami alert. The coastal areas from California to British Colombia and the coast of Alaska are under a tsunami advisory, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A tsunami advisory indicates dangerous currents for swimmers, boaters and coastal structures.
3:34 a.m. -- A magnitude 8.8 earthquake strikes Chile while most people are sleeping, at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. ET). The epicenter is off the coast of Chile's Maule region. The quake was felt in several Chilean towns and in parts of Argentina as well.