8.8 quake devastates Chile,triggers pacific tsunami

As tsunami waves roared across the Pacific Ocean,a tsunami struck the Gambier islands in French Polynesia later in the day but there was no major damage.

“The wave is spread out across the entire body of water in the Pacific,” US National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Lau said.

The quake shook buildings in Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires,and was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil,1,800 miles to the east. In Talca,just 65 miles from the epicentre,furniture toppled as the earth shook for more than a minute in something akin to major airplane turbulence.

In the Chilean capital of Santiago,200 miles from the epicentre,the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building’s two-storey parking lot pancaked.

Emergency officials set off shrieking alarm sirens across parts of Hawaii,which could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11.19 am,according to Charles McCreery,director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Tonga began evacuating people from low-lying coastal areas and experts warned that tsunami waves were likely to hit Asian,Australian and New Zealand shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The US West Coast and Alaska,too,were threatened.

Waves 6 feet above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23 minutes after the quake,and President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave swept into the Robinson Crusoe Islands,410 miles off the Chilean coast. She declared a “state of catastrophe” in central Chile but has not asked for assistance from other countries. “The system is functioning… We’re doing everything we can with all the forces we have,” she said.

In Santiago,modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes,but many older ones were heavily damaged,including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church,whose bell tower collapsed.

Santiago’s airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours after the passenger terminal suffered major damage,airport director Eduardo del Canto told Chilean television. In Concepcion,Chile’s second-largest city and only 70 miles from the epicentre,nurses and residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around wrapped in blankets,some carrying infants. A 15-storey building collapsed,leaving only a few floors intact.

“I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here,” said Fernando Abarzua,marveling that he escaped with no major injuries. He said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake,“but he keeps shouting,saying he’s OK”.

Marco Vidal,who was traveling with a group of 34 Americans,was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck. “All the things started to fall. I was terrified.”

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck Chile on May 22,1960. The 9.5 magnitude quake killed 1,655. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii,Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the US. Saturday’s quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.