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SANTIAGO (Xinhua) – More than 300 people have been killed in Chile after a 8.8-magnitude megaquake hit the country on Saturday, the national emergency office said.
The office had said earlier on Saturday that the death toll was 214.
MASSIVE DAMAGE
The quake, one of the world’s most powerful in decades, rocked Chile at 3:34 a.m. local time (0634 GMT) on Saturday, knocking down homes and hospitals and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.
The epicenter was only 115 km from Concepcion, Chile’s second largest city with a population of 670,000.
The earthquake was felt in Concepcion, Santiago, Rancagua, Talca, Temuco, Valdivia, Valparaiso, Montt Port, Vicuna, La Serena, Capiapo and Calama.
According to Sergio Barrientos, science chief of the Seismology Institute of the University of Chile, the quake was 50 times bigger than the Haiti quake on Jan. 12.
Chilean Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said Saturday’s earthquake was a cataclysm of historical dimensions. “Since 1960 we have never had an earthquake like this.” But he expected to normalize the country in the coming 48 or 72 hours.
The national emergency office said there are some 400,000 victims in Biobio, one of the most affected areas.
Meanwhile, the airport of Santiago has been closed due to structural problems in its main building, and is expected to be habilitated in 48 hours.
In many municipalities in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, the electricity supply was interrupted.
Between the regions of Valparaiso and Araucania, in a range of some 800 km, water supply, sewage systems and telephone services have been disrupted in many zones.
After the major earthquake, at least 25 aftershocks ranging from 5 to 6.9 magnitudes on the Richter scale have been registered.
To the moment, 22 people have been reportedly rescued alive, while millions of others are believed affected by the massive quake.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has sent three rescue teams to the affected areas, while declaring many parts of the country as catastrophe zones and calling on residents to remain calm.
TSUNAMI THREATS ACROSS PACIFIC
Countries and regions across the Pacific are on high alert against a tsunami triggered by the earthquake.
The first wave of the tsunami hit Japan’s outlying islands at around 12:48 a.m. local time (0348 GMT) Sunday. But the initial waves were just 10 cm high.
The waves first hit Ogasawara islands off Japan’s main island. The Japan Meteorological Agency predicted it will soon reach other parts of the Pacific coastline of the country.
Local governments has urged thousands of households in northeast Japan to evacuate, where the waves are expected to be more than 3 meters high. Transportation on many lines of the railway system has also been suspended due to the tsunami.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department said Sunday that those staying at the coastal areas of southern Sabah are advised to stay away from the beaches as there are likely rough sea conditions on Sunday.
According to a statement issued by the Malaysian Meteorological Department, the Chilean earthquake had triggered tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean, affecting countries and regions such as Mexico, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, Tonga and Samoa Islands.
The Philippines has raised the tsunami alert to Level 2, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said on Sunday.
Residents in 19 provinces facing the Pacific in the Philippines have been urged to move to higher grounds, as the tsunami is expected within hours.
The first tsunami waves are expected to arrive between 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. local time (0500 GMT and 0630 GMT). These waves may continue for hours, Phivolcs said.
People are advised to stay away from the shoreline during this period, and should not go to the coast to watch the tsunami. Boats in harbors, estuaries or shallow coastal waters were urged to return to shore.
Hundreds of residents in the east coast of Mindanao in southern Philippines have moved to higher grounds.
Waves hit the coastal area in the village of Kidalapong, forcing at least 100 people to evacuate to higher grounds, Inquierer.net quoted Victorina Mendez, police chief of Malita in Davao Del Sur, as saying.
The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said Sunday that the Pacific Tsunami Alert Center does not include Indonesia among Asia-Pacific countries affected by the Chilean earthquake.
On its website, the center paints Papua, Indonesia’s easternmost territory that faces the Pacific, green, as an indication that an area is safe from the impacts of the tsunami.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on Saturday lifted a tsunami warning for Hawaii which “dodged a bullet” as tsunami waves passed by.
“We clearly had a tsunami in the water and we had to evacuate,” said Gerard Fryer of the center, adding it looks like Hawaii “dodged a bullet” since the worst seemed to have passed.
Governor Linda Lingle said Hawaii escaped the tsunami unscathed.
The authorities received no report of damage in any county, said Lingle, calling it “a great day now that it’s over.”
The first waves of tsunami triggered by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile began to affect Hawaii just before noon, slightly later than predicted.
However, the tsunami warning center said more waves could follow.
Experts urged people to remain cautious as the following waves of tsunami, which are unpredictable and can last for hours, may be more powerful than the first ones.
Source from THE PHILIPPINE STAR
