Feb. 27) — An 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile early this morning toppled buildings, cut roads, power lines and telecommunication, and set off tsunami warnings that sent people scrambling for higher ground from Hawaii to China. The most powerful temblor to hit quake-ridden Chile in half a century had claimed at least 147 lives by midafternoon, and the death toll was rising.
President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe” in central Chile and described huge waves that struck populated areas of the Robinson Crusoe Islands, about 410 miles offshore, but the Associated Press said there were no immediate reports of major damage there. Officials said the quake was one of the strongest ever measured in the world.Chile Rocked by EarthquakeAP163 photos A magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile Saturday, killing scores and triggering tsunami alerts throughout the Pacific Rim. Here, residents look at a collapsed apartment building in Concepcion.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)
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Chile Rocked by Earthquake
A magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile Saturday, killing scores and triggering tsunami alerts throughout the Pacific Rim. Here, residents look at a collapsed apartment building in Concepcion.
AP
AP
President Barack Obama said later that early reports to the White House suggested “hundreds of lives” have been lost in Chile and that “damage is severe.” Speaking on the White House lawn, Obama said he called Bachelet to let her know the U.S. is standing by to help with “rescue and recovery efforts,” but Bachelet said earlier that Chile was not seeking foreign assistance.
Obama told U.S. residents in Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa to “carefully heed the instructions of your state and local officials,” and said the government was taking steps to prepare for tsunami damage.
The Chilean government shut down airports for at least 24 hours and suspended subway service in Santiago, the capital, about 200 miles from the epicenter, while pictures from Chile showed bridges collapsed, highways severed and trucks, cars and buses flung from the streets where they were traveling when the quake hit. The government was urging Chileans to limit travel as much as possible.
Aerial footage relayed by CNN from Chilean television showed several, more modern areas of Santiago looking untouched, while pictures from elsewhere in the city showed rubble in the streets, walls knocked down and houses and apartment buildings partially crumbled. Witnesses told the AP that historic adobe mud-and-straw buildings in the village of Talca, closer to the epicenter, were leveled by the earthquake but that victims were able to escape from the rubble.
Other reports from the city of Concepcion, just 70 miles from the epicenter, suggested damage was far worse there.
Several hospitals had been evacuated because of quake damage, and there was no official tally of the injured, Bachelet said. “The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We’re doing everything we can with all the forces we have,” she said.
Carmen Fernandez, director of the National Emergency Agency, told the AP at least 147 people were killed in the quake.
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– US Offers Help to Chile
The Nazca tectonic plate under the eastern Pacific Ocean thrust under the South American plate at 3:34 a.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, tossing Chileans for 90 seconds with a force about 500 times more powerful than the earthquake that devastated Haiti last month. But at more than 21 miles beneath the surface, the quake off the Maule region of Chile was more than three times deeper than Haiti’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake, potentially diminishing the effects, while significantly stronger Chilean construction codes and a more modest population density suggest Chile won’t suffer as much.
The U.S.G.S. warned that “a large vigorous aftershock sequence” could be expected. Within 10 hours of the initial quake, the agency had reported 29 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or larger, including one measuring 6.9 in magnitude.
via: aol.com
