The undersecretary for the ministry of the interior and public security says five people have killed and one million people across Chile have been evacuated.
Map from the United States National Tsunami Warning Centre showing how
earthquake energy might spread across the Pacific, with predicted waves
above sea level in centimetres Photograph: USNTWC/USNTWC
This map, from the United States National Tsunami Warning Centre,
shows how the energy generated by this 8.3 magnitude quake might spread
across the Pacific. The colour indicates the predicted waves above sea
level in centimetres.
My colleague Jonathan Franklin has been listening the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, address the country.
She confirmed that three people had been killed and the towns of Coquimbo and Tongoy were heavily flooded.
Both areas have been declared catastrophe zones and the army will be
sent in to prevent looting. Bachelet will visit both towns tomorrow.
Franklin said that despite the earthquake striking so close to Chile’s independence day on 18 September, the casualties appear to be low, and the damage confined to walls and roofs - “and not entire towns getting flattened”, as occurred in February 2010.
Chile, one of the most earthquake prone countries on earth, has learned from past tremors: new
buildings must be able to survive 9.0 magnitude earthquakes and the
country has instituted a tsunami warning system, activated for the first
time today.
Franklin says Bachelet’s political fortunes are intertwined with
earthquakes. She was perceived to have “completely bungled” the response
to the February 2010 quake, which killed 525 people. “She was slow to
respond, she did not have a good tsunami warning in place,” he says.
Now, “she’s at the all time lowest approval rating for any Chilean
president, she’s at the low 20s, her credibility and leadership is being
questioned heavily”, he says. “All eyes will be on her to see if she learned the lessons from last time.”
A handout photo released by the Presidency of Chile shows Chilean
President Michelle Bachelet (C) during a meeting with ministers after a
earthquake, at La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago de Chile,
Chile, late 16 September 2015, after a tsunami alert was issued for the
earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter scale. Photograph: PRESIDENCY OF
CHILE/EPA
In Fiji, where it’s about 2.48pm, the government has warned the first
wave generated by this earthquake is expected to arrive around
midnight. It advises “no immediate action”.
The Solomon Islands government is still carrying out a threat assessment, but says, “at this stage we don’t know if a tsunami has actually been generated”.
The Chilean police have confirmed that in Illapel, close to where this earthquake struck, a woman has died and seven people have been injured, three of them seriously, according to CNN Chile.
It quotes the national emergency agency saying that first tsunami hit
Tongoy, just south of La Serena, around 8.20pm, triggering a nationwide
red alert.
The mayor of Coquimbo, Cristian Galleguillos, told CNN Chile that the
city is starting to flood and that 95% of residents have lost power. The residents were able to evacuate before the waves started to hit the coast.
Fabrizio Guzmán, communications manager for World Vision in Chile,
said the quake struck during rush hour, causing congestion that left
many people stranded in the streets as they tried to return home.
More footage from central Chile, showing pool water swaying heavily.
Its unclear whether this was from the initial 8.3 magnitude earthquake
of the significant number of aftershocks that have followed.
Over in New Zealand, the minister for civil defence, Nikki Kaye, has
issued this advice for residents in East Cape, Chatham Islands,
Coromandel and Banks Peninsula.
1. Stay out of the water (sea, rivers and estuaries, including boating activities)
2. Stay off beaches and shore areas
3. Do not go sightseeing
4. Share this information with family, neighbours and friends
5. Listen to the radio and/or TV for updates
6. Follow instructions of local civil defence authorities.
The National Crisis Management Centre in Wellington has been
activated to monitor this situation, and I’m receiving regular
briefings.
The tsunami warning remains in place until a cancellation message is issued by MCDEM.
As reports come through of the potential impact of the earthquake in Chile, our thoughts are with everyone affected.
*A TSUNAMI CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG CURRENTS OR WAVES DANGEROUS TO PERSONS IN OR VERY NEAR THE WATER IS EXPECTED.
*CURRENTS MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO SWIMMERS... BOATS... AND COASTAL
STRUCTURES AND MAY CONTINUE FOR MANY HOURS AFTER THE TSUNAMI ARRIVAL.
*THE FIRST WAVE MAY NOT BE THE LARGEST.
Waves of less than a foot (30cm) have been forecast for Newport Beach, Los Angeles Harbour, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.
Chile’s national emergency office is reporting “medium” aftershocks in Coquimbo, Valparaiso and O’Higgins.
Meanwhile a tsunami warning has been cancelled for the region of Magallanes, but remains in place for the rest of the coast.
My colleague in New Zealand, Eleanor Roy, reports that that country’s Ministry of Civil Defence is “in precaution mode”, and has not yet asked the public to stay away from beaches and low-lying areas.
“At the moment any threat is a long way off and would be middle of the night stuff for New Zealand,” Shane Bayley from the Ministry of Civil Defence says.
The areas under assessment are East Cape, the Chatham Islands,
Coromandel, and Banks Peninsula. “No threat confirmed for Auckland yet
they are in watching mode,” Bayley says.
Remarkable images are coming out of Chile, as people across the
country take to the streets for refuge after an 8.3 magnitude earthquake
struck over two hours ago.
Santiago residents stand on a street outside their houses after an earthquake hit Chile’s central zone. Photograph: Reuters
People remain in the street after a tsunami alert in Valparaiso Photograph: Esteban Zuniga/AFP/Getty Images
People evacuate a mall in the Chilean capital of Santiago after the earthquake struck Photograph: Nadia Perez/AP
Residents sit next to an equestrian statue in Santiago’s main square
after the earthquake struck. The powerful earthquake caused buildings to
sway in Santiago and other cities and sent people running into the
streets. Photograph: Luis Hidalgo/AP
My colleague in Chile, Jonathan Franklin, says the Chilean government
has reported a 25-year-old woman has died in Illapel, a town on the
coast about 46km from where the earthquake hit.
She was reportedly killed by a falling wall. Another 20 have been injured.
More out of Coquimbo, where we’ve heard reports of flooding and residents are heading to higher ground.
The caption reads, “Nobody is going to sleep in Coquimbo tonight.”
Civil Defence issued the tsunami warning for the East Cape, Chatham
Islands, Coromandel and Banks Peninsula regions a short time ago,
warning residents in those areas to stay out of the water and keep away
from beaches.
Civil Defence said any tsunami activity may reach the East Cape just
after midnight tonight. It has warned that tsunami activity could
continue for several hours and the threat should be regarded seriously
until the warning was cancelled.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said waves of up to a
metre could hit New Zealand, while waves of between one and three metres
could hit French Polynesia.
New Caledonia, Fiji, the Samoas, the Cook Islands, Tonga and other island nations are also being warned of 1m waves.
Smaller waves may hit Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
The Chilean foreign ministry reports that the hospital and prison in Constitución, a town south of Santiago that was flattened during the last major earthquake in 2010, have been evacuated.
My colleague Uki Goni reports that tremors were felt as far as the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires.
He writes:
The Chilean earthquake set off car alarms in Buenos Aires 690 miles
(1,110km) away on the Atlantic side of the South American continent. Public buildings, such as the buildings of the University of Buenos Aires, were evacuated. Tall
buildings in the upscale neighbourhoods of Belgrano and Palermo swayed
so much that their dwellers ran out into the streets.
Reports from other Argentine cities, such as Rosario and Mendoza, also reported swaying buildings and evacuated buildings. No casualties have been reported.
A tide gauge at Coquimbo, north of where the earthquake struck, shows
that two hours after the tremor large waves – up to 4m high – are
continuing to hit the shore.
No reports yet of any casualties from this earthquake, which struck
about two hours ago, but already photographs of the damage are coming
through.
La Serena is in the Coquimbo region, the closest administrative zone to the epicentre of the earthquake.
I’ve just spoken with Jonathan Franklin, the Guardian’s correspondent
in Chile, who said he was in the surfing town of Pichilemu south of
Santiago “right at sea level when this all happened, so we basically
headed to the hills”.
“I was right at one of the biggest surf breaks in Chile, a national
holiday is in two days, the entire country is on vacation starting
today, so beaches are packed,” he said.
“The wine glasses started to shake and the kids started to scream, it was a very long quake, it must have been about two minutes long.”
A cell phone warning system was put in place after an earthquake and
tsunami in 2010 killed 525 people. Franklin said it sounded for the
first time on Wednesday evening. “All of a sudden, every single cell phone started to send off like an air raid alarm,” he said.
“If you’re in the tsunami alert zone your cell would have started
going crazy, it was an indication that you had to get about 30 or 40m
above sea level,” he said.
People on the coast were being given exact times for when waves were
expected to hit. “For every part of the coast they give you the exact
moment, so here, supposedly in five minutes the wave is going to hit,” he said. “People are terrified ... Already we’re hearing reports of
buildings collapsing, and also of rock slides, there’s a lot of really
arid, mountainous zones here, and electricity out.”
An 8.3 magnitude earthquake has struck Chile, causing buildings in
the capital Santiago, to sway, and residents to take refuge in the
streets.
The US Geological Survey said the quake’s epicentre was about 46km
west of Illapel, a town about three hours’ drive north of the Chilean
capital.
It occurred around 7.54pm, local time, and had a depth of 10km.
The Pacific Tsunami Warming Centre says “widespread hazardous tsunami
waves” are possible along the coasts of Chile, Peru and Hawaii.
CNN has gathered footage purporting to show when the earthquake struck.
end quote from:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/sep/17/chile-earthquake-massive-83-magnitude-tremor-strikes-santiago-live-updates#block-55fa36b9e4b0b18640539ca8
— Natalie Balfour (@nat_hazard) September 17, 2015
Seismic waves from Chile earthquake recorded on seismometers in schools in Australia #ChileQuake @AuScope @CitSciOZ pic.twitter.com/0h8hP0CVbJ— La Tercera (@latercera) September 16, 2015
#LTenVivo | Así se vivió en una piscina el terremoto de la zona central de Chile pic.twitter.com/0ZS3RnbaMH http://t.co/du9d5tS3zF— Valparaiso (@valparaiso) September 17, 2015
21:23 @hernancastro_ Así sonaron las alarmas en #Valparaíso @valparaiso @munivalpo pic.twitter.com/vh7lc6bBiy— BuzzFeed Storm (@BuzzFeedStorm) September 17, 2015
UPDATE: 15.1 foot tsunami observed in city of Coquimbo, Chile after powerful earthquake http://t.co/3CX95pB2Ev pic.twitter.com/CXONWahOw1
— Ahora Noticias (@ahoranoticiasAN) September 17, 2015
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