Strong Earthquake Shakes Chile
An 8.8 magnitude earthquake shakes Chile yesterday. It is one of the strongest earthquakes on record killed at least 300 (body count is still rising as of report time) people in Chile. The quake also sent giant waves roaring across the Pacific Ocean that forced Japan, Hawaii, Philippines and other countries on the Pacific on tsunami alert almost a day later.
In an address to the nation, President Michelle Bachelet said two million Chileans had been affected but, after touring the worst-hit areas by plane, she found it hard to spell out the magnitude of the disaster.
Highways in the South American nation were sliced to pieces, bridges imploded and buildings collapsed as the 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck overnight some 325 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of the capital Santiago.
“The power of nature has again struck our country,” Bachelet said, declaring six of Chile’s 15 regions “catastrophe zones” in the aftermath of the 8.8-magnitude quake.
“This is a catastrophe of immense proportions, so it will be very difficult to give precise figures,” Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said. Officials later said at least 300 people had been killed.
After the massive earthquake at 3:34 am (0634 GMT), waves of over seven feet high crashed into the Chilean coast and tore out into the Pacific, it is reported to that at least five people in the remote Robinson Crusoe islands were killed.
President Barack Obama said the United States “stands ready to assist in the rescue and recovery efforts, and we have resources that are positioned to deploy should the Chilean government ask for our help.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, due to leave Sunday on a Latin American tour that includes Chile, said she was in close contact with Bachelet and that “our thoughts and prayers” went out to the victims.
The European Union said it would provide three million euros (four million dollars) in immediate assistance. Unlike Haiti, struck by a devastating earthquake last month, Chile is one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries.
The US Geological Survey said it had recorded more than 51 aftershocks ranging from 4.9 to 6.9 since the quake. A second 6.1-magnitude quake, said to be an entirely separate event killed two people in neighboring Argentina.
Earthquake-prone Chile lies along the Pacific rim of fire and is regularly rocked by quakes, but damage is often limited as they mostly hit in remote desert regions.
It was the second major earthquake to hit the Western hemisphere in seven weeks after more than 200,000 people were killed in Haiti last month by a 7.0-magnitude quake.
The epicenter was just a few hundred miles north of the biggest earthquake on record, a 9.5-mganitude monster in May 1960 that killed between 2,200 and 5,700 people and triggered a huge tsunami that reached as far as eastern New Zealand.
