Source: Reuters
* President says 47 people killed
* Some buildings toppled
* Buildings shook violently in the capital, airport closed (Adds details)
By Alonso Soto
SANTIAGO, Chile, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck south-central Chile early on Saturday, killing at least 47 people, knocking down buildings and triggering a tsunami.
President Michelle Bachelet confirmed 47 deaths and said more were possible. Telephone and power lines were down, making damage assessments difficult in the early morning darkness.
"Never in my life have I experienced a quake like this, it's like the end of the world," one man told local television from the city of Temuco, where the quake damaged buildings and forced staff to evacuate the regional hospital.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck 56 miles (90 km) northeast of the city of Concepcion at a depth of 22 miles (35 km) at 3:34 a.m. (0634 GMT).
Chilean television and radio stations said several buildings collapsed in the city of Curico and that there was damage to buildings in the historic center of the capital Santiago, about 200 miles (320 km) north of the epicenter.
The capital's international airport was forced to close, a highway bridge collapsed and chunks of buildings fell into the street.
In the moments after the quake, people streamed onto the streets of the capital, hugging each other and crying.
There were blackouts in parts of Santiago and communications were still down in the area closest to the epicenter.
Bachelet urged people to stay calm. "With a quake of this size we undoubtedly can't rule out more deaths and probably injuries," she said.
An earthquake of magnitude 8 or over can cause "tremendous damage," the USGS says. The quake that devastated Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12 was rated magnitude 7.0.
TSUNAMI
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the Chile quake generated a tsunami that may have been destructive along the coast near the epicenter "and could also be a threat to more distant coasts."
It issued a tsunami warning for Chile and Peru, and a tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Antarctica. Chile's navy said officials had lifted the tsunami warning in southern Chile, local radio reported.
According to a 2002 census, Concepcion is one of the largest cities in Chile with a population of around 670,000.
Chile's main copper producing region and some of the world's largest copper mines are in the far north of the country near its border with Peru, but there are also major copper deposits near Santiago. Officials said roads to the important Los Bronces mine near the capital were blocked.
Chile produces about 34 percent of world supply of copper, which is used in electronics, cars and refrigerators.
In 1960, Chile was hit by the world's biggest earthquake since records dating back to 1900.
The 9.5 magnitude quake devastated the south-central city of Valdivia, killing 1,655 people and sending a tsunami which battered Easter Island 2,300 miles (3,700 km) off Chile's Pacific seaboard and continued as far as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.
Saturday's quake shook buildings as far away as Argentina's Andean provinces of Mendoza and San Juan. A series of strong aftershocks rocked Chile's coastal region from Valdivia in southern to Valparaiso, about 500 miles (800 km) to the north.
The tsunami warning center said there was a possibility the U.S. state of Hawaii could be elevated to watch or warning status. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Kieran Murray)
Roads to Los Bronces mine blocked after Chile quake
27 Feb 2010 10:40:14 GMT
Source: Reuters
SANTIAGO, Chile, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Roads to Chile's Los Bronces copper mine were blocked on Saturday after a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake, security officials at the mine said.
Officials at state-run Codelco's El Teniente and Andina copper mines were not immediately available for comment.
The Anglo-American Los Bronces and the Codelco mines are the closet mines to the earthquake epicenter on Chile's south-central coast.
The heart of the mining operations in Chile is located in the north.
(Reporting by Alonso Soto; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
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Strong aftershock shakes Chile capital after quake
27 Feb 2010 10:41:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
SANTIAGO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A strong aftershock rocked the Chilean capital of Santiago early on Saturday, hours after a 8.8-magnitude quake hit the country, killing at least 47 people.
Witnesses said the aftershock rattled buildings in the city. (Reporting by Santiago bureau; Writing by Helen Popper)
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27 Feb 2010 20:32:52 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For full coverage, click on [nN27174408])
* Quake kills at least 147 people in central Chile
* Buildings toppled, bridges and roads destroyed
* Operations halted at two major copper mines
* Tsunami kills at least 3 in Robinson Crusoe island (Adds quote on length of quake)
By Jose Luis Saavedra
CONCEPCION, Chile Feb 27 (Reuters) - One of the most powerful earthquakes in decades battered Chile on Saturday, killing at least 147 people, knocking down buildings and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.
Buildings caught fire, major highway bridges collapsed and debris blocked streets across large swathes of central Chile.
A 15-storey building collapsed in Concepcion, the closest major city to the epicenter, and overturned cars lay scattered below a fallen overpass in the capital Santiago. Telephone and power lines went down, making it difficult to assess the full extent of the damage and loss of life.
Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera said at least 147 people had died in the 8.8-magnitude quake, which struck at 3:34 a.m. (0634 GMT), sending many people rushing from their beds and onto the streets in fear.
"It came in waves and lasted so long. Three minutes is an eternity. We kept worrying that it was getting stronger, like a terrifying Hollywood movie," said housewife Dolores Cuevas.
Tsunami warnings were posted around the Pacific, including the U.S. state of Hawaii, Japan and Russia.
One emergency official said Chile's death toll was unlikely to increase dramatically, but it was one of the 10 biggest quakes recorded since 1900 and dealt a blow to the economic infrastructure in the world's No. 1 copper producer and one of Latin America's most developed and stable countries.
"This will be a major blow to the country's infrastructure; there has been major damage to roads, airports, which are now suspended, ports and also in housing," Pinera told reporters.
The quake halted operations at two major mines and President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave hit the Juan Fernandez islands, an archipelago where Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned in the 18th century, inspiring the novel Robinson Crusoe.
"There was a series of waves that got bigger and bigger, which gave people time to save themselves," pilot Fernando Avaria told TVN television by telephone from the main island. Three people were killed and four missing there, he said.
Bachelet said residents were evacuated from coastal areas of Chile's remote Easter Island, a popular tourist destination in the Pacific famous for its towering Moai stone statues.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck 70 miles (115 km) northeast of Concepcion at a depth of 22 miles (35 km).
The capital Santiago, about 200 miles (320 km) north of the epicenter, was also badly hit. The international airport was closed for at least 24 hours as the quake destroyed passenger walkways and shook glass out of doors and windows.
"I thought I'd blown a tire ... but then I saw the highway moving like it was a piece of paper and I realized it was something much worse," said one man who was forced to abandon his car on a wrecked highway overpass.
Chile's Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, suspended operations at its El Teniente and Andina mines, but reported no major damage and said it expected the mines to be up and running in the "coming hours."
Production was halted at the Los Bronces and El Soldado copper mines, owned by Anglo American Plc
Chile produces about 34 percent of world supply of copper, which is used in electronics, cars and refrigerators.
TSUNAMI
Unusually big waves battered Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, where residents were moved to higher ground as a precaution.
"Chile probably got the brunt force of the tsunami already. So probably the worst has already happened in Chile," said Victor Sardina, geophysicist at the warning center.
"The tsunami was pretty big too. We reported some places around 8 feet. And it's quite possible it would be higher in other areas," he added.
An earthquake of magnitude 8 or over can cause "tremendous damage," the USGS says. The Jan. 12 quake that devastated Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince was measured as magnitude 7.0.
Local television showed a building in flames in Concepcion, one of Chile's largest cities with around 670,000 inhabitants. Some residents looted pharmacies and a collapsed grains silo, hauling off bags of wheat, television images showed.
Broken glass and chunks of concrete and brick were strewn across roads and several strong aftershocks rattled jittery residents in the hours after the initial quake.
The long quake sent Santiago residents streaming onto the streets hugging each other and crying.
"My house is completely destroyed, everything fell over ... it has been totally destroyed. Me and my wife huddled in a corner and after hours they rescued us," said one elderly man in central Santiago.
There were blackouts in parts of Santiago. Emergency officials said buildings in the historic quarters of two southern cities, mainly made of adobe, had been badly damaged and local radio said three hospitals had partially collapsed.
The magnitude 9.5 earthquake of 1960, the largest earthquake worldwide in the last 200 years, spawned a tsunami that engulfed the Pacific Ocean. About 1,600 lives were lost in Chile and the tsunami took another 200 lives in Japan, Hawaii and the Philippines
In 1960, Chile was hit by a 9.5-magnitude earthquake, one of the biggest ever recorded. It devastated the city of Valdivia, killed 1,655 people, and sent a tsunami that battered Easter Island 2,300 miles (3,700 km) off Chile's Pacific coast and continued as far as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.
The waves that reached the Philippines took about 24 hours to get there.
Saturday's quake shook buildings as far away as Argentina's Andean provinces of Mendoza and San Juan. A series of strong aftershocks rocked Chile's coastal region from Valdivia in the south to Valparaiso, about 500 miles (800 km) to the north.
The United Nations and the White House said they were closely monitoring the situation in Chile and the potential threat of tsunamis in the Pacific.
President Barack Obama called Bachelet and said the United States stood ready to help Chile. He also urged Americans to heed warnings about a possible tsunami that could affect the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to visit Chile on Tuesday on a Latin American tour. (Additional reporting by Helen Popper, Kevin Gray and Guido Nejamkis in Buenos Aires, editing by Anthony Boadle)
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Tsunami lands in Australia after Chile quake
27 Feb 2010 23:37:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
SYDNEY, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A tsunami generated by a 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile hit beaches in eastern Australia on Sunday, witnesses and officials said, but there were no initial reports of damage.
Australia issued an alert overnight for most of its east coast, and for eastern parts of the island state of Tasmania.
But the national tsunami warning centre said there were no concerns about major inundation, only foreshore flooding and strong currents which could pose a risk to swimmers or boats.
Chris Ryan, co-director of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre, told Reuters that residents in low-lying parts of offshore Norfolk Island had been evacuated as a precaution but he was not aware of any other evacuations in Australia.
Ryan said more waves could be expected later in the morning. The 'marine warning' level of threat issued by the centre corresponded to anticipated waves of half to one metre above the normal level of the sea at that time, he said.
Although the tsunami also hit Pacific island nations, there were no initial reports of major damage.
(Sydney Newsroom +612 6273 2730)
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Tsunami warning lifted; Waves reach Japan, Russia
By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer Eric Talmadge, Associated Press Writer – 54 mins ago
TOKYO – The tsunami from Chile's devastating earthquake hit Japan's main islands and the shores of Russia on Sunday, but the smaller-than-expected waves prompted the lifting of a Pacific-wide alert. Hawaii and other Pacific islands were also spared.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled shorelines for higher ground after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii warned 53 nations and territories that a tsunami had been generated by Saturday's magnitude-8.8 quake earthquake. After the center lifted its warning, some countries kept their own watches in place as a precaution.
In Japan, the biggest wave hit the northern island of Hokkaido. There were no immediate reports of damage from the four-foot (1.2-meter) wave, though some piers were briefly flooded.
As it crossed the Pacific, the tsunami dealt populated areas — including the U.S. state of Hawaii — only a glancing blow.
The tsunami raised fears Pacific nations could suffer from disastrous waves like those that killed 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean in December 2004, which happened with little-to-no warning and much confusion about the impending waves.
Officials said the opposite occurred after the Chile quake:
They overstated their predictions of the size of the waves and the threat.
"We expected the waves to be bigger in Hawaii, maybe about 50 percent bigger than they actually were," said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the warning center. "We'll be looking at that."
Japan, fearing the tsunami could gain force as it moved closer, put all of its eastern coastline on tsunami alert and ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in low-lying areas to seek higher ground as waves raced across the Pacific at hundreds of miles (kilometers) per hour.
Japan is particularly sensitive to the tsunami threat.
In July 1993 a tsunami triggered by a major earthquake off Japan's northern coast killed more than 200 people on the small island of Okushiri. A stronger quake near Chile in 1960 created a tsunami that killed about 140 people in Japan.
Towns along northern coasts issued evacuation orders to 400,000 residents, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said. NHK switched to emergency mode, broadcasting a map with the areas in most danger and repeatedly urging caution.
As the wave crossed the ocean, Japan's Meteorological Agency said waves of up to 10 feet (three meters) could hit the northern prefectures of Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi, but the first waves were much smaller.
People packed their families into cars, but there were no reports of panic or traffic jams. Fishermen secured their boats, and police patrolled beaches, using sirens and loudspeakers to warn people to leave the area.
In Kesennuma, northern Japan, seawater flooded streets near the coast for about four hours before receding but caused little impact to people.
But the tsunami passed gently by most locations.
By the time the tsunami hit Hawaii — a full 16 hours after the quake — officials had already spent the morning blasting emergency sirens, blaring warnings from airplanes and ordering residents to higher ground.
Picturesque beaches were desolate, million-dollar homes were evacuated, shops in Waikiki were closed and residents filled supermarkets and gas stations to stock up on supplies. But after the morning scare, the islands were back to paradise by the afternoon.
Waves hit California, but barely registered amid stormy weather. A surfing contest outside San Diego went on as planned.
In Tonga, where up to 50,000 people fled inland hours ahead of the tsunami, the National Disaster Office had reports of a wave up to 6.5 feet (two meters) high hitting a small northern island, deputy director Mali'u Takai said. There were no initial indications of damage.
Nine people died in Tonga last September when the Samoa tsunami slammed the small northern island of Niuatoputapu, wiping out half of the main settlement.
In Samoa, where 183 people died in the tsunami five months ago, thousands remained Sunday morning in the hills above the coasts on the main island of Upolu, but police said there were no reports of waves or sea surges hitting the South Pacific nation.
At least 20,000 people abandoned their homes in southeastern Philippine villages and took shelter in government buildings or fled to nearby mountains overnight. Provincial officials scrambled to alert villagers and prepare contingency plans, according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council.
Philippine navy and coast guard vessels, along with police, were ordered to stand by for possible evacuation but the alert was lifted late Sunday afternoon.
Indonesia, which suffered the brunt of the 2004 disaster, had been included in the tsunami warning Saturday, but the country's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said Sunday there was no tsunami risk for the archipelago as it was too far from the quake's epicenter.
On New Zealand's Chatham Islands earlier Sunday, officials reported a wave measured at 6.6 feet (two meters).
Several hundred people in the North Island coastal cities of Gisborne and Napier were evacuated from their homes and from camp grounds, while residents in low-lying areas on South Island's Banks Peninsula were alerted to be ready to evacuate.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology canceled its tsunami warning Sunday evening.
"The main tsunami waves have now passed all Australian locations," the bureau said.
No damage was reported in Australia from small waves that were recorded in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Norfolk Island, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) northeast of Sydney.
New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management downgraded its tsunami warning to an advisory status, which it planned to keep in place overnight.
___
Associated Press writers Mark Niesse and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Mari Yamaguchi and Malcolm Foster in Tokyo, Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, Debby Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, and Kristen Gelineau in Sydney contributed to this report.
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