GW students studying in Chile safe after quake

Boats are heading out to sea and people on land are leaving coastal areas for higher ground.

The quake occurred at a shallow depth, and the epicentre was located 228km north of the capital Santiago, a city of 6.6 million people, where there were scenes of pandemonium as thousands fled swaying buildings.

“They’ve had a lot of experience”, Baldwin said, noting a strong monitoring of quake activity and the retrofitting of buildings to minimize harm.

Authorities said 10 people were killed, mostly in the areas closest to the epicenter.

President Michelle Bachelet said her government “learned a series of lessons” from previous disasters and is set to visit the worst affected areas.

Chile’s ministry of the interior and public security said 20 people have been injured, but phone networks remain down in parts of the country so the full extent of damage and injury is not yet known. The people who were evacuated are asked not to return to their homes until it is safe to do so.

Tsunami advisories for Hawaii and California were dropped Thursday following a powerful quake off Chile, while minor effects were recorded along coasts as far north as Alaska.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is continuing to monitor changes throughout the morning.

APPHOTO XNP119: Women look a the destruction left behind by an earthquake-triggered tsunami in Concon, Chile, Thursday, September 17, 2015.

Officials originally issued a more serious tsunami watch for the state shortly after Wednesday’s magnitude-8.3 quake . If that turns out to be the case, it will be a sign that Chile’s traditionally strong risk reduction measures and emergency planning had gotten better in the last five years. “But it is true that preparedness and risk reduction in Chile is ahead of much of the world, and that makes a difference”. The temblor was so powerful it was felt in São Paulo, Brazil, more than 2,100 miles away, reported the New York Times.

The quake was the largest to hit the country since 2010. He said the town of around 30,000 was without power.

“We were on the 12th floor and we were very afraid, because it was not stopping”.