Eight Dead After Massive Chile Quake and Tsunami

Yesterday, the authorities lifted a tsunami alert and began dispatching emergency crews and assessing damage.

A powerful quake off Chile also sparked a tsunami advisory for part of coastal California and Hawaii, prompting officials in both states to urge caution around shorelines.

The quake has claimed the lives of at least 8 people and has forced the evacuation of over a million residents. “Some boats are stranded in the wetlands and others are stuck inland”, said Burgos, who inspected to the affected region on Thursday morning, in a preliminary damage report.

“Once again, we have to deal with a tough blow from nature”, Bachelet said in a televised address.

The quake was so powerful that its effects have been felt by people as far away as Buenos Aires in Argentina, about 1,400km from the epicentre. She continues, “It is all very dark, and we just hope the sea hasn’t reached our house”.

The mayor of Illapel, which is near the epicenter, said on a radio broadcast that one person had been killed by a collapsing wall, and 15 others were reported injured.

Most buildings in Illapel had stayed standing, residents said.

Chile is centered around the most tectonic-ally active area in the world, specifically on the Nazca and South American plates, the former of which keeps continuing to move under the latter. Classes were cancelled in coastal areas.

The warning center said Thursday that the tsunami generated after an magnitude-8.3 quake in the Pacific Ocean off Chile no longer poses a threat.

“Our concern is always the ones where we don’t really get much in the way of warning”. We have residential neighbourhoods that have flooded. Authorities reported one death in a town north of the capital.

Chile was gearing up to celebrate its national holiday on Friday, but what was to be a joyous occasion has turned into a survivors’ nightmare with infrastructure cut off indefinitely.

ShelterBox last responded in Chile earlier this year when the Calbuco volcano erupted three times in eight days, and the usually arid area of Atacama suffered intense rainfall causing flash flooding and landslides. In 2010, an 8.8-magnitude natural disaster in central-southern Chile triggered a massive tsunami, and more than 500 people were killed.