Earthquake hits Chile / news from BBC on 5 March 2010

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 5 + 6 MARCH 2010

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8552989.stm

 

CHILE SACKS OFFICIAL OVER TSUNAMI ALERT

 

Page last updated at 21:24 GMT, Friday, 5 March 2010

 

Chile has sacked the head of its oceanographic service following the earthquake and tsunami that killed about 800 people.

 

The service, part of the Chilean navy, has been widely criticised for failing to issue a nationwide tsunami warning immediately after the quake.

 

The navy has also launched an inquiry into how the disaster was handled, a government statement said.

 

Meanwhile three powerful aftershocks rattled Chile on Friday.

 

The tremors were strong enough to bring down some damaged buildings in the second city of Concepcion.

 

Last Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the seventh most powerful on record, was centred 115km (71 miles) north-east of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital Santiago.

 

'DIAGNOSIS ERROR'

 

The official statement said Commander Mariano Rojas had been removed from his post at the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (Shoa) because he had failed to provide a clear warning of the tsunami.

 

Port authorities in several coastal towns issued their own tsunami warnings, but a national alert never came.

 

Some experts have said the failure led to deaths.

 

An investigation will "determine responsibility and clear up the circumstances surrounding the decision-making process" in response to the quake, the statement added.

 

Military officials have admitted "an error of diagnosis" and said they transmitted "very unclear information" to President Michelle Bachelet on whether to lift or maintain a tsunami alert.

 

Nations around the Pacific issued their own tsunami alerts but the feared giant waves never materialised.

 

The Chilean navy has named Commander Patricio Carrasco as the new head of Shoa.

 

President Bachelet has said that Chile's reconstruction will take three to four years.

we're having a 24Hr telethon here to get money to help people in need

Swedish SVT Text: CHILE MAY SHAKE FOR YEARS

 

Chile may experience aftershocks for months, maybe even years after the massive earthquake.

 

The number of aftershocks will decrease, but they can be felt for months and may occur for years, says John Bellini of the USGS Friday when 3 strong aftershocks shook Chile.

 

Since the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake a week ago Chile has had more than 200 aftershocks, several of them with a magnitude > 6.

 

 

ZDF Text: There has been a strong magnitude-6.6 aftershock in Chile almost a week after the earthquake disaster in Chile. The epicentre was near CONCEPCION which was hard hit in the magnitude-8.8 earthquake last Saturday when more than 500 people died. Some already damaged buildings collapsed. So far there has been no reports of new victims, and there is "no fear of tsunami".

 

 

LORE posted news of a 24 HOUR TELETHON.

Earthquake hits Chile / news article from BBC World News on 6.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 6 MARCH 2010

 

UN CHIEF BAN KI-MOON VISITS QUAKE-HIT CHILE CITY

 

From BBC World News on 6 March 2010

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has visited a Chilean city badly damaged by last week's earthquake and promised aid to help the country recover.

 

Mr Ban flew into CONCEPCION aboard a Chilean Air Force plane and was shown a 15-storey building that had collapsed, killing at least nine people.

 

As the clear-up continues, doctors have warned that debris piled up in towns and cities poses a health hazard.

 

The official death toll stands at 452 but hundreds are still missing.

 

"Remember that we are with you... our hearts are with you," Mr Ban said in a brief statement in Concepcion.

 

"Your people helped Haiti when it was in need - now is the moment when the international community must help Chile," he said.

 

UNCLEAN WATER

 

After returning to the capital Santiago, Mr Ban said Chile would receive field hospitals, temporary bridges and other international aid that the government needs.

 

Meanwhile, doctors say cases of diarrhoea are increasing among people drinking unclean water, and they are treating injuries caused by people trying to get through the debris.

 

We are going to keep needing water, electric systems, a functioning sewage system," said Gaston Saavedra, mayor of the port city of TALCAHUANO which was badly damaged by the quake and tsunami.

 

"We need to clean up rotting fish in the streets. We need chemical toilets, and when it starts raining, people living in tents are going to get wet and sick. All this is going to cause infections," he added.

The Chilean health ministry said that so far there had been no outbreaks of dysentery or other communicable diseases and it has enough tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations for the areas worst affected.

 

Chile has been hit by regular aftershocks since the 8.8-magnitude quake last week, including at least six on Saturday morning, the largest of which measured 5.1.

 

Government officials have also struggled to determine the death toll, announcing that they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead.

 

On Friday the figure was revised down from about 800 to 452.

Earthquake hits Chile / news from GMA News.TV on 6 March 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 6 MARCH 2010 FROM TEXT TV

 

CHILE QUAKE SURVIVORS PIN HOPES ON NEW PRESIDENT

 

03/05/2010 | 08:25 AM – GMA News.TV

 

DICHATO, Chile — Chile's earthquake and tsunami smashed this pretty little tourist town into splinters, leaving immense piles of wreckage and an awful stench. Rooting through the remains Thursday, Dichato's residents said they are pinning their hopes for renewal on the new president, a conservative billionaire who takes office next week.

 

Nothing short of mammoth reconstruction can return Dichato to a semblance of what it was, and survivors here — and throughout the disaster zone — said they're hoping President-elect Sebastian Pinera is up to the job.

 

"Chile is a country on the rise, economically strong, with many businesses. And because of this we expected more" of President Michelle Bachelet's leftist administration, said Amanda Ruiz, a secretary in a construction firm. "We're disillusioned."

 

"I think he has the ability to do it," said Luis Omar Cid Jara, 66, whose bakery and roast chicken shop on Dichato's main street were destroyed.

 

Critics said Bachelet initially was reluctant to summon the military to stop looting and deliver aid, given the armed forces' brutal repression of the Chilean left in the past, especially during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

 

Pinera, who takes office March 11, stepped up his criticism of the outgoing president. He called Thursday for a sweeping modernization of Chile's disaster system to eliminate what he called "the lack of coordination and the weaknesses that this tragedy has uncovered with brutal eloquence."

 

Pinera named new governors for the six hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work even before his inauguration.

 

His immediate priorities: Find the missing; ensure law and order; restore utilities; and tend to the injured. Pinera said his administration will work more closely with the military on disasters than Bachelet, and he pledged to rebuild "with the most modern and efficient standards."

 

Bachelet, whose approval ratings were sky-high before the quake, bristled at the criticism and insisted "Chile will rise" from the devastation.

 

Touring an aid distribution center in the heavily damaged city of Concepcion, Bachelet denied any delays or indecision in the hours following Saturday's pre-dawn quake. Top military officers had complained they couldn't deploy troops to quash looting or deliver aid until Bachelet finally declared a state of emergency more than 24 hours after the temblor.

 

In the coastal town of CONSTITUCION, firefighters were looking for bodies of people swept away by the tsunami as they camped on Isla Orrego, an island in the mouth of the Maure River that flows through the city. CONSTITUCION suffered perhaps the greatest loss of life in the disaster, in part because many people had come for carnival celebrations and were caught in huge waves that reached the central plaza.

 

"There were about 200 people in tents who disappeared" on Isla Orrego, Fire Chief Miguel Reyes told The Associated Press.

 

An Associated Press Television News crew witnessed several bodies being recovered, including that of a baby girl washed up on the beach.

 

Rescue and recovery were in full swing in Dichato, where firefighters used long poles to probe for bodies in huge piles of muddy sand and beach wreckage. The navy ferried troops ashore to help unload 86 tons of food.

 

Volunteers canvassed camps up in the hills created by people who abandoned their ruined property in town, fearing another tsunami because of frequent aftershocks. They handed out carloads of clothing and food.

 

The magnitude-8.8 quake — one of the strongest on record — and the tsunami that followed ravaged a 700-kilometer (435-mile) stretch of Chile's Pacific coast and killed at least 802 people. The government said Thursday it had identified 279 of the dead.

 

Authorities have not said how many are missing but do say 2 million people were affected. They declared a three-day official mourning period starting Sunday.

 

Bachelet said it could take at least three years to bring the region back.

 

"The country doesn't deserve this. It's going to be — it's going to be very hard moving ahead," she told ADN radio.

 

The army was flying in 320 tons of aid, and the navy was shipping 270 more tons to coastal towns cut off from the rest of Chile.

 

DICHATO is nestled between pine-forested hills and a lovely sheltered bay where colorful fishing boats served coastal communities and export companies. Its residents proudly note their beach is the only one in the region where children could swim safely in the ocean. Its population of 4,000 triples each January and February with TOURISTS — many were in town when disaster struck — and residents count on that brief summer vacation for much of their income.

 

The quake and tsunami killed at least 19 people in DICHATO and smashed neat wooden houses and small hotels into huge splinter piles. The surge ruined most other buildings in town, which stank Thursday with decomposing fish. One fishing boat marooned far inland was full of rotting octopus.

 

The Bachelet government had made a difference in DICHATO, building 130 neat mustard-yellow duplexes in a public housing project that just opened in September and providing 60 million pesos — $120,000 — to restore the facades of businesses along main street, said Mabel Gomez, president of the local chamber of commerce.

 

Gomez, 29, ran several small businesses, providing public baths on the beach, an Internet and phone center, and several small cabanas to tourists. But Dichato doesn't have a bank, and like many business owners, Gomez lost the entire season's profits — 6 million pesos, about $12,000 — she had planned to deposit later this month.

 

"Just like the government has helped other countries, now it has to help us here," said Cid, the bakery and chicken shop owner. Booming profits from the state-owned Codelco mining company — which Bachelet zealously husbanded even as she spent more on social programs than any previous president — will have to be spent by Pinera on reconstruction, Cid said.

 

Chile has asked other countries and the United Nations for temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electric generators, water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis centers. Some 36 hospitals were either severely damaged or destroyed, Bachelet said Thursday.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon planned to meet both Bachelet and Pinera on Friday and tour Concepcion.

 

Pinera now plans an austere inaugural, with only brief stays by foreign dignitaries to enable police to focus on quake duty, and will fly to the disaster zone immediately after he is sworn in. Bachelet has canceled a farewell dinner planned for the eve of the inaugural.

 

A quake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck late Thursday near Calama, 780 miles (1,260 kilometers) north of Santiago and roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) north of the epicenter of Saturday's quake. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

 

Both quakes occurred along the same tectonic boundary where the Nazca Plate, moving eastward, is forcing its way under the continental plate of South America, said Susan Potter, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. – AP

 

 

STRONG AFTERSHOCKS HIT QUAKE-STUNNED CHILE

 

Eva Vergaria, Associated Press Writer / (03/06/2010 | 05:01 AM – GMA News.TV)

 

CONCEPCION, Chile — The most powerful aftershock in six days sent terrified Chileans fleeing into quake-shattered streets and forced doctors to evacuate some patients from a major hospital on Friday as the nation struggled to comprehend the scope of the disaster that hit it.

 

People raced into the streets in pajamas as a magnitude-6.0 aftershock struck Concepcion shortly before dawn.

 

A magnitude-6.6 shock at 8:47 a.m. (6:47 a.m. EST; 1147 GMT) then rattled buildings for nearly a minute.

 

It was the strongest aftershock since a magnitude-6.9 jolt shortly after Saturday's historic quake and it sent office chairs spilling from upper floor of an already-damaged 22-story building.

 

Fear of additional damage led officials to evacuate some patients from the regional hospital in downtown CONCEPCION.

 

"They sent us all home," said 47-year-old Aaron Valenzuela, who hobbled through the street because four toes had been amputated due to an injury he suffered in Saturday's big quake.

 

Dr. Patricia Correa, who was overseeing the hospital's emergency ward, said her part of the five-story building "is on the point of collapsing. The walls cracked."

 

As a daily curfew meant to halt looting expired at noon, people flooded into the streets of Concepcion and formed lines about 100 long behind an intermittently functioning automatic teller machine, for a rare open pharmacy and at a corner store.

 

A sign at the shop announced it was out of flour, water, candles, rice, cheese, eggs and diapers, though jam, sugar, coffee and onions remained.

 

President Michelle Bachelet, meanwhile, met with her successor, Sebastian Pinera, and they promised to try to avoid letting the March 11 hand-over of power interrupt aid efforts.

 

"The new government will have an immense challenge," Bachelet said.

 

Officials were still struggling to determine the human toll of the magnitude-8.8 quake, as well as the damage to roads, ports and buildings such as hospitals.

 

Disaster officials announced they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead in the hardest-hit part of the country — an error that would drop the official death toll to about 540 if there were no other mistakes.

 

But Interior Department officials said that from now on, they would release only the number of dead who had been identified: 279 as of Friday.

 

The government also said Friday it had removed Cmdr. Mariano Rojas as head of the Navy's oceanographic service over its failure to issue a tsunami warning for the Pacific immediately after Saturday's quake.

 

Port captains in several towns issued their own warnings, but a national alert never came,/I] and some say that failure led to deaths. The tsunami is believed responsible for much of the deaths and damage.

 

Bachelet says it will take three years to rebuild the region wracked by the earthquake and tsunami, and that task is all too clear to the people trying to clean up the ruins of their towns.

 

In the tourist town of DICHATO, a few kilometers (miles) north up the coast from CONCEPCION, the quake and tsunami killed at least 19 people and smashed neat wooden houses and small hotels into huge piles of splinters.

 

The town of 4,000 people stank Thursday of decomposing fish and a fishing boat marooned far inland was full of rotting octopus.

 

Bachelet's government had made a difference in the town before the quake, building 130 neat mustard-yellow duplexes in a public housing project that opened in September and providing 60 million pesos — $120,000 — to restore the facades of businesses along main street, said Mabel Gomez, president of the local chamber of commerce.

 

But as they rooted through the ruins, Dichato's residents said they are pinning their hopes for renewal on the next president, a conservative billionaire.

 

Pinera, who takes office March 11, named new governors for the six hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work even before his inauguration. His immediate priorities: Find the missing; ensure law and order; restore utilities; and tend to the injured.

 

Pinera also stepped up his criticism of Bachelet's administration on Thursday, knocking "the lack of coordination and the weaknesses that this tragedy has uncovered with brutal eloquence."

 

Critics said Bachelet initially was reluctant to summon the military to stop looting and deliver aid, given the armed forces' brutal repression of the Chilean left in the past, especially during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

 

Top military officers had complained they couldn't deploy troops to quash looting or deliver aid until Bachelet finally declared a state of emergency more than 24 hours after the temblor.

 

The magnitude-8.8 quake — one of the strongest on record — and the tsunami that followed ravaged a 700-kilometer (435-mile) stretch of Chile's Pacific coast.

 

In the coastal town of Constitucion, firefighters were looking for bodies of people swept away by the tsunami as they camped on Isla Orrego, an island in the mouth of the Maure River that flows through the city.

 

CONSTITUCION suffered perhaps the greatest loss of life in the disaster,/I] in part because many people had come for carnival celebrations and were caught in huge waves that reached the central plaza.

 

"There were about 200 people in tents who disappeared" on Isla Orrego, Fire Chief Miguel Reyes told The Associated Press. An AP Television News crew witnessed several bodies being recovered, including that of a baby girl washed up on the beach. - AP

 

 

DOCTORS WARN OF DISEASES FROM CHILE WRECKAGE

 

Eva Vergara, Associated Press Writer

 

(03/07/2010 | 01:33 AM – GMA News.TV)

 

CONCEPCION, Chile — Huge piles of wreckage and tons of rotting fish and other debris blanketing the ground are turning the coastal towns shattered by Chile's earthquake and tsunami into nests of infection, doctors warned./COLOR]

 

As calls for medicine and shelter grew, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon flew into the heavily damaged city of CONCEPCION aboard a Chilean air force plane Saturday, following at least six moderate aftershocks. He was driven immediately to the city's ground zero, where a building had collapsed and a couple called out one last time to a missing son believed killed in the wreckage.

 

As Chileans lined up for hepatitis and tetanus shots Friday on the opening day of an EXTENSIVE VACCINATION CAMPAIGN, doctors said cases of diarrhea are increasing from people drinking unclean water and a growing number of patients are suffering injuries wading through the mess.

 

"We are going to keep needing water, electric systems, a functioning sewage system. We need to clean up rotting fish in the streets. We need chemical toilets, and when it starts raining, people living in tents are going to get wet and sick. All this is going to cause infections," said Talcahuano Mayor Gaston Saavedra, whose port city was heavily damaged by the Feb. 27 quake and tsunami.

 

The government faces other health care problems. LOOTING OF PHARMACIES has made MEDICINE SCARCE for people suffering from diabetes, hypertension and psychological illnesses, and 36 hospitals were heavily damaged or destroyed in the quake.

 

Chile said more than a dozen of its own military and civilian field hospitals were operating Friday. Mobile hospitals from a half-dozen other countries also were opening or about to open — an unusual situation for a country that proudly sends rescue and relief teams to the world's trouble spots.

 

But most of the foreign units weren't treating anyone a week after the disaster. Chile insisted donor nations first figure out how to coordinate with Chile's advanced, if wounded, public health system.

 

A PERUVIAN field hospital opened in Concepcion on Thursday with three operating rooms and 28 beds. But surgeons and trauma specialists stood with their arms crossed Friday, waiting for patients to be sent by local health officials.

 

Luis Ojeda, a Spanish doctor working with Doctors Without Borders, said his team arrived Monday but was still waiting for Chile's instructions on where to deploy.

 

"This country is atypical," Ojeda said, adding he'd spent his time checking on the displaced in tent camps.

 

Chile signed an OPERATING AGREEMENT for a U.S. FIELD HOSPITAL Friday, enabling 57 U.S. military personnel to work side-by-side with civilian Chilean doctors in coming days to support a population of 3,000 in the town of ANGOL. In Rancagua, a Cuban field hospital was fully operational.

 

The Chilean Health Ministry said that there had been no outbreaks of dysentery or other communicable diseases and that it has enough tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations for the disaster zone.

 

Field hospitals being provided by ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, CUBA, PERU, SPAIN and the U.S. are meant to relieve 36 heavily damaged or destroyed Chilean hospitals, including Santiago's now-closed 522-bed Felix Bulnes Hospital. Brazil's emergency field hospital was sent to western Santiago to pick up the slack.

 

Powerful aftershocks Friday forced the evacuation of an older wing of CONCEPCION's five-story REGIONAL HOSPITAL.

 

Doctors couldn't access clean scalpels because a sterilization room was too dangerous to enter. PERUVIAN doctors donated their sterilizing equipment, which was quickly put to use for the amputation of four infected toes from Aaron Valenzuela, who stepped on broken glass Monday while looking for drinking water. He was sent home after surgery because of the hospital damage. "They threw us all out and told us to go home," Valenzuela said as he limped away.

 

The emergency room supervisor, Dr. Patricia Correa, said her part of the hospital "is on the point of collapsing." "The walls cracked," she said.

 

The most powerful aftershock in six days sent terrified Chileans fleeing into the streets and forced doctors to evacuate some patients from the regional hospital. The magnitude-6.6 shock at 8:47 a.m. rattled buildings for nearly a minute and sent office chairs spilling from an exposed upper floor of a badly damaged 22-story office building.

 

At least six smaller aftershocks shook Chile on Saturday morning, the largest of which had a preliminary magnitude of 5.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado. No additional damages or injuries were immediately reported.

 

Authorities decided Saturday to completely demolish a 15-story building that had partially collapsed in the earthquake in the neighborhood visited by U.N. Secretary-General Ban, after emergency workers determined there were no more survivors to be found.

 

But one couple took one last walk through the wreckage where they called out in vain for their missing son, Jose Luis.

 

Also Saturday, police recovered washing machines, refrigerators, plasma TVS, and mattresses that looters had stashed in their homes, said police Capt. Claudio Munoz. He said five people would be charged.

 

Survivors of the quake struggled to find medicines and fill prescriptions because pharmacies were looted earlier in the week and POWER OUTAGES still affected businesses and clinics. More than 100 people lined up outside one of Concepcion's few open drug stores on Friday. Soldiers stood guard nearby.

 

"I haven't taken my medicine for two or three days. I really should take it every day," said Miguel Hidalgo, a retired truck driver with chronic hypertension who was told there was one package left of a drug he needs to keep his kidneys working.

 

"People have nowhere to go to get medicine," said Dr. Solange Cadiz Iturrieta, who joined volunteers handing out donated drugs to people outside a community radio station.

 

The Chilean Health Ministry said its top priorities included mental health care for quake survivors, garbage removal, drinking water and shelter.

 

The U.N. has said Chile needs temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electric generators, damage assessment teams, water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis centers.

 

Housing Minister Patricia Poblete said at least 500,000 homes were destroyed but she expected that figure to reach as high as 1.5 million once surveys are complete. In New York, Chile's U.N. ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, said reconstruction will cost Chile an estimated $30 billion.

 

Officials struggled to determine the death toll. Disaster officials announced they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead — an error that would drop the official death toll to about 540 without other mistakes. Interior Department officials said they would now release only the number of dead who had been identified: 452 as of late Friday.

 

After days of finger pointing over the disaster response, President Michelle Bachelet and President-elect Sebastian Pinera agreed Friday to set aside their differences and work with "unity, solidarity and generosity."

 

"The new government will have an immense challenge, and we will do our job until the last day" before Thursday's inauguration, Bachelet said.— AP

Earthquake hits Chile / news from Text-TV on 7 March 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 7 MARCH 2010

 

Danish DR1 text: CHILE EARTHQUAKE DESTROYED CHILE'S CULTURAL HERITAGE

Chile's cultural heritage in the areas worst-hit by the earthquake has been destroyed as 200 year-old churches collapsed. All people in these areas are living in a state of post-traumatic stress.

 

The many wine-growers/vineyard owners in the worst-hit area were hard hit by the earthquake. They lost more than hundred million litres of wine from last year's harvest of wine grapes (vintage).

 

Swedish SVT text: CHILE'S VINTAGE SURVIVED THE EARTHQUAKE

Recently several media reported that this year's harvest of wine grapes/vintage had been totally destroyed - but this is not true according to Swedish Radio's reporter in Chile. The effect of the earthquake varies from vineyard to vineyard. Many have lost all wines already being in the maturation process, but in most vineyards the harvesting of wine grapes has begun and the grapes are still hanging. Now Chilean winemakers hope that the production can be normalized in a couple of weeks' time.

 

 

ZDF Text: ANGER DUE TO SLOW HELP IN CHILE

Life slowly returns to normalcy in Chile one week after the devastating earthquake with many deaths/casualties. In the city of TALCA some banks and some shops and businesses re-opened. There was widespread anger at too slowly organized help and lootings. In TALCA city angry citizens set fire to tyres. "We need food. The Police doesn't protect us", the text said on one banner. According to citizens there is NO ELECTRICITY and NO RUNNING WATER in TALCA in central Chile.

Earthquake hits Chile / news on 8 and 9 March 2010

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 8 and 9 MARCH 2010

 

Swedish SVT Text on 8.3.10: LOOTERS IN CHILE GIVE UP

A brief amnesty did the trick: Looters in the earthquake-affected CONCEPCION returned the stolen goods or dumped them along the roads and the streets: Furniture, TV sets, refrigerators and freezers were returned. Even the threat of razzias and the arrest of at least 20 suspected looters have played a part. Policemen collected the goods dumped at the side of the pavement. The police filled a sports centre with the returned stolen goods.

 

Danish DR1, TV2 + Swedish SVT on 9.3.10: EARTHQUAKE MOVED CITY 3 METRES

Chile’s second-largest city, CONCEPCION with 350,000 inhabitants was one of the worst-hit cities by the massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake and moved 3 metres westwards according to US and Chilean researchers at Ohio State University. Chile’s capital, SANTIAGO moved almost 28 cm (27.7 cm) to the west. In neighbouring Argentina the capital Buenos Aires moved almost 4 cm westwards. About 800 Chileans lost their lives during the earthquake in Chile on 27 February 2010. There were such geological movements as far away as the Falkland Islands.

Earthquake hits Chile / interesting article from 9.3.10

 

NOT MORE QUAKES, JUST MORE PEOPLE IN QUAKE ZONES

 

(Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer - 03/09/2010 | 11:24 AM) - GMA News.TV

 

First the ground shook in Haiti, then Chile and now Turkey. The earthquakes keep coming hard and fast this year, causing people to wonder if something sinister is happening underfoot. - It's not.

 

While it may seem as if there are more earthquakes occurring, there really aren't. The problem is what's happening above ground, not underground, experts say.

 

More people are moving into megacities that happen to be built on fault lines, and they're rapidly putting up substandard buildings that can't withstand earthquakes, scientists say.

 

And around-the-clock news coverage and better seismic monitoring make it seem as if earthquakes are ever-present.

 

"I can definitely tell you that the world is not coming to an end," said Bob Holdsworth, an expert in tectonics at Durham University in northern England, referring to the number of quakes.

 

A 7.0 magnitude quake last month killed more than 230,000 people in Haiti. Less than two weeks ago, an 8.8 magnitude quake — the fifth-strongest since 1900 — killed more than 900 people in Chile. And on Monday, a strong pre-dawn 6.0 magnitude quake struck rural eastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people.

 

On average, there are 134 earthquakes a year that have a magnitude between a 6.0 and 6.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This year is off to a fast start with 40 so far — more than in most years for that time period.

 

But that's because the 8.8 quake in Chile generated a large number of strong aftershocks, and so many occurring this early in the year skews the picture, said Paul Earle, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

Also, it's not the number of quakes, but their devastating impacts that gain attention with the death tolls largely due to construction standards and crowding, Earle said.

 

"The standard mantra is earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do," he said.

 

There have been more deaths over the past decade from earthquakes, said University of Colorado geologist Roger Bilham, who just returned from Haiti. In an opinion column last month in the journal Nature, Bilham called for better construction standards in the world's megacities. Last year his study of earthquake deaths, population, quake size and other factors produced disturbing results. And that was before Haiti, Chile and Turkey.

 

"We found four times as many deaths in the last 10 years than in the previous 10 years," Bilham told The Associated Press Monday. "That's definitely up and scary."

 

Other experts said they too have noticed a general increase in earthquake deaths. The World Health Organization tallied than 453,000 deaths from earthquakes from 2000 to 2009, up markedly from the previous two decades. In the 1970s, however, a massive quake in China killed about 440,000 people.

 

But those numbers fluctuate every year. Statisticians say the hit-or-miss nature of earthquake fatalities makes it hard to see a trend in deaths.

 

A quick analysis by two statistics experts found no statistically significant upward trend since the 1970s because of the variability — despite the earthquake experts' perceptions that deaths have been rising, at least since the 1980s.

 

The Haiti quake likely set a modern record for deaths per magnitude of earthquake "solely as a function of too many people crammed into a city that wasn't meant to have that many people and have an earthquake," said University of Miami geologist Tim Dixon.

 

Disaster experts say they've seen more deaths especially from quakes that wouldn't have been as bad decades ago. They point to two in Turkey and India — a 1999 earthquake in Izmit that killed 18,000 and the 2001 disaster that killed 20,000 in Bhuj.

 

"Look at some of the big ones recently," said Debarati Guha-Sapir, director of the WHO's disaster epidemiology research center. "Had the Izmit or Bhuj quakes happened 30 years ago, the events would have been relatively insignificant as the population of these cities were a third of what it was when it did happen. Increasing population density makes a small event into a big one."

 

Disaster and earthquake experts say the problem will only worsen. Of the 130 cities worldwide with more than 1 million population, more than half are on fault lines, making them more prone to earthquakes, Bilham said.

 

"I've calculated more than 400 million people at risk just from those," he said.

 

Developing nations, where the population is booming, also don't pay attention to earthquake preparedness, Bilham said. "If you have a problem feeding yourself, you're not really going to worry about earthquakes."

 

He said, when he went to Haiti after the January quake, he had hope that construction would be quake-proof because of the emphasis on it. Instead, people rebuilt their houses their old unsafe ways.

 

Another reason quakes seems worse is that we're paying attention more. The phenomenon of Haiti quickly followed by the 8.8 in Chile got everyone's attention.

 

But it won't last, said disaster researcher Dennis Mileti, a former seismic safety commissioner for the state of California.

 

"People are paying attention to the violent planet we've always lived in," Mileti said. "Come back in another six months if there has been no earthquakes, most people will have forgotten it again." - AP

Earthquake in CHILE

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 10 MARCH 2010

 

I have not found any news on Text TV from Denmark, Sweden, Germany and UK (BBC). Nor have I found anything on Filipino GMA News.TV.

 

Instead I found a Haiti-related RED CROSS PRESS RELEASE dated 10.3.10 which can be read in the humanitarian threads about HAITI plus "Help Red Cross and Unicef help victims of natural disasters" and "Updates of the situation in Southeast Asia, Chile and Haiti".

 

RED CROSS PRESS RELEASE on 10.3.10

 

http://www.redcross.org/

 

AMERICAN RED CROSS PASSES THE $100 MILLION MARK IN AID FOR HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF AND RECOVERY

 

Priorities in the months and years ahead will include shelter, water and sanitation, livelihood programs and disease prevention.

 

 

 

 

YOU can help the victims of countless crises, like the recent earthquakes in CHILE and HAITI, around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.

 

The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation by mailing your donation with the designation to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013 or to your local American Red Cross chapter.

 

Donations to the International Response Fund can be made by phone at 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or online at http://www.redcross.org.

 

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit http://www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.

Earthquake hits Chile / news on 11 March 2010

 

Swedish SVT Text and Danish DR1 Text:

DESIGNATION AFTER QUAKE MISTAKE IN CHILE

 

Carmen Fernandez, director of the National Emergency Office - Onemi, resigned after admitting that she had acted too slow after the earthquake. "We were blind and speechless/ paralysed," Fernandez said recalling the hours after the quake. Last Friday President Michelle Bachelet sacked the head of the navy's oceanography service because no clear tsunami alert was issued before the deadly tsunami following the quake. So far 497 dead bodies have been identified after the disaster that affected about 2 million people. According to the authorities the regions Biobio and MAULE have power and running water again. At least 500 have been killed in the quake and in particular by the following tsunami.

 

BBC News / Live: Chile today had a new president in the Chile. Michelle Bachelet left office saying that the strong 8.8 magnitude earthquake almost 2 weeks ago was the defining moment of her term in office.

 

Danish Text/German ARD + ZDF/Swedish SVT Text: CHILE:

TREMORS AS PRESIDENT WAS SWORN IN.

Today Chile's new president, the conservative billionaire Sebastian Piñera, was sworn in as president at a low-key ceremony. The reasons for the low-key ceremony were the substantial damage and the many deaths after the massive earthquake on 27 February. Minutes before the ceremony in the city of Valparaiso, Chile was shaken by a 7.2 magnitude tremor. Many participants looked nervous and worried during the entire ceremony due to the new tremor. Almost 2 weeks after the strong 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile, 3 strong aftershocks / tremors shook Central Chile. The epicentre of the strongest 7.2 magnitude tremor was 150 km south of the capital, Santiago - 125 km south-west of Santiago. The earthquake occurred in about 10 km depth. The navy issued a tsunami alert. Inhabitants living close to the coast were told to seek higher ground at once. Later the tsunami alert was lifted again after a few hours. According to US Geological Survey the strongest tremor reached magnitude 6.9. The tremors could be felt in Valparaiso, where Chile's new president was sworn in and in the capital, Santiago, where thousands ran out of the houses and into the streets in Santiago.

Chile's new president says that the first reports indicate "substantial damage" in the city of Rancagua.

President Piñera's most important task is to be in charge of the rebuilding of the quake-affected areas of Chile. Chile's most important export good, copper, was not affected by the quake, but other trades / industries such as wine production and fishing industry were damaged. Many coastal areas were totally destroyed by the tsunami.

Earthquake hits Chile / news on 11.3.10

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8561340.stm/Page last updated at 22:22

GMT, Thursday, 11 March 2010

 

NEW CHILE QUAKE AS PINERA SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT

 

correspondent Andy Gallacher: "PINERA HAS A HUGE JOB ON HIS HANDS"

 

Sebastian Pinera has been sworn in as president of Chile, minutes after it was hit by the largest aftershock since last month's devastating earthquake.

 

The 6.9-magnitude tremor was centred in O'Higgins Region, some 140km (90 miles) south of the city of Valparaiso, where the inauguration ceremony took place.

 

The congress building was evacuated soon after. On taking office, Mr Pinera said: "It's time to get to work."

 

His presidency ends two decades of left-wing rule in Chile.

 

The tycoon not only faces the challenge of reconstruction, but takes over from the highly popular Michelle Bachelet, who was the country's first woman president.

Ms Bachelet left office with an 84% popularity rating despite criticism of her government's response to February's 8.8-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami, which left close to 500 people dead.

 

Earlier, Chile's disaster management chief resigned, six days after the head of the navy's oceanography service was dismissed for failing to provide a clear warning of the tsunami.

 

A BBC correspondent in the capital, Santiago, says buildings there shook and people rushed out onto the streets after Thursday's tremor, but no damage was reported.

 

A tsunami alert was issued for a long stretch of Chile's coast but was later lifted, except for Easter Island, where it remained in effect.

 

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the aftershocks were too small to cause "a destructive widespread tsunami".

 

Mr Pinera said there had been "significant damage" in Rancagua, a city almost 100km (62 miles) south of the capital, which was close to the main tremor's epicentre, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

 

The US Geological Survey initially estimated the largest aftershock's magnitude at 7.2, but later revised it down to 6.9. It was followed by more tremors, the biggest of which had a magnitude of 6.7.

 

'MASSIVE CHALLENGE'

 

The inauguration ceremony in the port city of Valparaiso, which houses the National Congress, was intended to be an austere affair.

 

The planned dinner was cancelled and the whole event scaled back out of respect for victims of the quake.

 

Ms Bachelet, who was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, handed the red, white and blue presidential sash to Mr Pinera.

 

"I'm leaving office with sadness for the suffering of our people, but also with my head held high, satisfied with what we have accomplished," she said in her farewell address.

 

The leaders of Peru, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia were among the dignitaries to attend the inauguration.

 

A 7.2 magnitude aftershock has sparked fears of another tsunami.

 

Seldom can an incoming president have faced such a massive and immediate challenge, says the BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago.

 

Many people have been made homeless by the quake, with about half a million homes destroyed.

 

BBC reader Ian Hutcheon, from San Vicente, 45km south of Rancagua, described Thursday's aftershock as "very severe".

 

"I was in a bank when it hit and there was mayhem, panic and chaos," he said.

 

BILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN

 

"We won't be the government of the earthquake, we'll be the government of reconstruction," Mr Pinera said recently.

 

Last month, Mr Pinera named his cabinet, leaving out any figures linked with the former military ruler, Augusto Pinochet.

 

In his election campaign, the 60-year-old the conservative leader said he would focus on boosting economic growth and producing jobs while continuing with the outgoing president's social policies.

 

Mr Pinera is one of the country's richest men.

 

He made his fortune introducing credit cards to Chile, then went on to buy a television channel, a stake in Chile's most successful football club, and put millions of dollars into other investments.

-------------------

 

DISASTER EXPERTS PRAISE CHILE QUAKE RESPONSE

 

(03/11/2010 | 09:06 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

SANTIAGO, Chile – President Michelle Bachelet leaves office Thursday with a chunk of her country in ruins — and her popularity in the clouds.

 

Despite complaints that aid was slow to reach the hungry and homeless, experts say Chile's response to one of history's most powerful earthquakes has been a model for disaster recovery.

 

At first, the problems were all too obvious: Chile's navy and emergency preparedness office failed to issue a tsunami warning that might have saved hundreds of lives after the Feb. 27 quake, and Bachelet didn't order soldiers to impose order in the streets until after looting had spun out of control.

 

But experts say other smart moves — like insisting that foreign help meet specific needs, quickly patching up roads and having the military handle logistics — made it possible to deliver 12,000 tons of relief in just 10 days.

 

And despite extensive damage to hospitals, few additional lives have been lost since the tsunami retreated, leaving at least 497 dead and hundreds missing.

 

Chile's critical north-south highway was restored the day after the quake, with thick metal plates covering cracks, dump-truck loads of gravel filling collapsed pavement and more than a dozen fallen pedestrian overpasses quickly pushed aside. The patchwork repairs soon enabled an aid convoy of 100 tractor-trailers to make the eight-hour journey south from the capital to the most damaged cities.

 

"We were where we needed to be immediately," the socialist president said in a Chilean TV interview ahead of Thursday's inauguration of conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera.

 

It was frustrating to have to make decisions based on INCOMPLETE INFORMATION, Bachelet said: Seismographs were knocked offline when the power went out, and the navy gave MIXED SIGNALS ON THE TSUNAMI. She said there was no hint looting would soon begin when she toured the disaster area hours after the quake. Chile clearly needs to improve its emergency communications and warning systems, she said.

 

But veterans of other disasters have been impressed by Chile's response.

 

"There is nothing more frustrating than getting aid somewhere and not seeing it delivered to the people who need it. Here, there is no aid that sits anywhere. It hasn't collected any dust.

 

It's getting exactly to the people," said Col. Julio Lopez, who commands the US Air Force's 35th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, which has been ferrying supplies and people in C-130 cargo planes between Chile's capital and Concepcion, the closest large city to the epicenter.

 

Ten days after the quake, more than 90 percent of homes in the disaster area have regular power and water and a half-million survivors are getting water trucked in. Food aid is flowing in huge cargo planes and military helicopters, navy ships and tractor-trailers.

 

Countless volunteers have turned out to help the 14,000 soldiers who stand guard and help deliver relief, and a national TELETHON raised $60 MILLION — enough to build SMALL EMERGENCY SHELTERS for most of the poorest survivors whose homes were destroyed.

 

The magnitude-8.8 earthquake that struck just off Chile's coast was more than 500 times more powerful than the 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti. It was so strong that it shifted the Earth's orbit and moved Concepcion three meters (10 feet) to the west, scientists say.

 

Yet Chile's infrastructure and modern buildings designed to withstand a magnitude-9 earthquake emerged largely intact. Chile had only a tiny fraction of Haiti's estimated 230,000 killed.

 

"The reality is far better than we originally feared," said Raul Rivera, chairman of the Innovation Forum, which promotes economic development in Chile.

 

Pinera has called for unity and solidarity — but has also sharply criticized the government response.

 

"When there is an earthquake of this magnitude — when one knows that it will interrupt basic services like power and water, and that it will generate fear, and also generate vandalism and looting — PUBLIC ORDER has to be guaranteed from the first day," Pinera told Radio ADN this week. "Here we lost a lot of time in establishing the state of catastrophe."

 

A poll sponsored by the conservative newspaper El Mercurio said 72 percent believe the government responded late and inefficiently to re-establish order, and 60 percent believe aid delivery has been too slow and inefficient. The survey of 600 adults in Santiago had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

 

But a larger tracking poll done before and after the Feb. 27 earthquake said Bachelet's 84 percent approval rating hasn't been dented.

 

Most Chileans blame the navy and emergency managers for botching the tsunami warning, and while 59 percent disapprove of how Bachelet handled "delinquency" in the disaster, more than 90 percent still respect her and believe she cares about them, according to the Adimark/GfK survey of 1,100 people nationwide, which had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

 

The persistence of the criticism led Carmen Fernandez, director of the National Emergency Office, to resign Wednesday. The government previously removed Cmdr. Mariano Rojas as head of the navy's oceanographic service over its failure to issue a tsunami warning immediately after the quake.

 

Chileans might feel differently had the government not quickly overcome the kind of coordination problems that vexed responses to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Haiti's earthquake this year, Lopez said.

 

During KATRINA, it seemed like no one was in charge for the first nine days, creating CHAOTIC SITUATIONS that endangered lives, he said: "It was a free for all ... it was everyone wanting to help and no one directing traffic."

 

CHAOS also reigned initially in HAITI, where in the absence of a functioning government, hundreds of planes landed in the cramped Port-au-Prince airport with no clear plan for getting aid to survivors. Foreign NGOs competed for priority treatment, and badly needed food, water and medicine got stuck.

 

Bachelet, in contrast, insisted on a quick analysis of the disaster first. Then, within hours, she was asking other countries for field hospitals, satellite phones, floating bridges and dialysis centers — specialized equipment that complemented Chile's own rescue and relief effort.

 

"In this case you did see an effective and well-executed response," said Mark Ghilarducci, a 25-year disaster veteran who helped run California's emergency management office during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. "I've seen other governments take far longer, with far less coordination and communication."

 

"It's pretty phenomenal to have such a low number of deaths in such a large earthquake that was relatively such a direct hit," Ghilarducci added. "There was not a lot of waiting; there was a tremendous response immediately, search and rescue and fire outfits right on the spot. That was good.

 

"Even 36 hours starting to get the military in place, that's not a lot of time when we're talking about the magnitude of this particular kind of disaster." - AP

 

 

STRONG QUAKES TORMENT CHILE AS PRESIDENT SWORN IN

 

(3/12/2010 | 07:30 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

SANTIAGO, Chile – The earth shook and shook Thursday as dignitaries walked in for the swearing-in of Sebastian Pinera as Chile's president. It shook some more as they waited for him.

 

People in the balconies of the vast congressional hall in coastal Valparaiso shouted warnings as a massive light fixture rocked overhead, and heads of state nervously eyed the ceiling. But a steely calm prevailed, and Pinera strode in smiling.

 

The president and his ministers then quickly swore their oaths, and the audience of 2,000 headed for the exits and the hills, joining an evacution called out of concern that Thursday's repeated aftershocks would set off another tsunami.

 

Inauguration Day was peppered with more than a dozen significant aftershocks, amply demonstrating Pinera's challenges after last month's magnitude-8.8 quake, one of the biggest in modern history.

 

Chile's first elected right-wing president in 52 years won office promising to improve the economy. Now, he says he'll be the "reconstruction president." His advice to citizens: "Let's dry our tears and put our hands to work."

 

But relief efforts stalled Thursday as more than 10 earthquakes shook Chile in a span of six hours. The strongest, at 6.9, nearly matched the 7.0-magnitude quake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12.

 

Pinera said there were no reports of more deaths, but a KEY HIGHWAY suffered more DAMAGE in the inland city of Rancagua, and VIOLENT WAVES hit the coastal towns of Pichilemu and Bucalemu, Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said.

 

Pinera urged citizens to heed the Chilean navy's tsunami warning and seek higher ground. Then he made a show of normality, greeting other presidents for lunch at the Cerro Castillo summer palace, where he left them at the table and boarded a helicopter to tour disaster areas.

 

"How was your welcome, president?" Pinera asked Argentina's Cristina Fernandez. "Moving, moving!" she joked.

 

The inauguration had lasted just 30 minutes, marked by three of the aftershocks. One prompted Colombia's Alvaro Uribe to leave the hall for several minutes as an announcer appealed for calm. Outgoing President Michelle Bachelet sat unperturbed as a nearby flower arrangement rocked back and forth.

 

Chile doesn't allow immediate presidential re-elections, but Bachelet remains popular. She left the hall to loud applause and a shout of "Come back soon, presidenta." Earlier Thursday, when a reporter asked if she'll run again in four years, she said it's not the time for politics.

 

Pinera called on Chileans to dedicate themselves to "this colossal job of reconstructing our country, of rebuilding better than what we had before, not just to lift up our schools, our hospitals, our homes, but also to make them better, and also to lift up the soul of our country."

 

"I am sure that just as we have done so many times, the Chilean people will rise up to this challenge," he said.

 

The Feb. 27 earthquake — the fifth-strongest since 1900 — killed 497 identified victims and potentially hundreds of others, destroyed or heavily damaged at least 500,000 homes and broke apart highways and hospitals. Recovery costs could soar above $15 billion, including $5 billion for infrastructure alone.

 

Thursday's quakes terrified many who have been living in and around quake-weakened homes since last month's massive temblor. Tall buildings swayed and windows rattled in downtown Santiago. In Talca, supermarkets closed for fear of looting. And just before Pinera visited coastal Constitucion, survivors and volunteers building 60 emergency shelters fled uphill in panic.

 

The strongest of the aftershocks — magnitude 6.9 — was Chile's most powerful since Feb. 27, and occurred along the same fault line, said geophysicist Don Blakeman at the US Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.

 

Chile's navy and emergency management office were much criticized for failing to issue a tsunami alert that might have saved hundreds of lives from the towering waves that followed the initial quake. This time, the alert went out — Pinera said an overabundance of caution was called for.

 

"Everything stopped — my meetings with business owners, work, life, everything has been paralyzed," said Mayor Gaston Saavedra of Talcahuano, where waves shoved huge shipping containers into downtown buildings last month.

 

Pinera repeatedly called for courage as he toured Constitucion, where he left 130 flowers along the riverbank for the dead and missing caught in the tsunami. He signed an order giving one-time cash handouts of $76 each to 4.2 million disaster survivors, and said he would send laws creating subsidies and tax-deductible donations to congress in the morning.

 

The billionaire investor, Harvard-trained economist and airline executive is known for his impatience with bureaucracy and ill-prepared aides. He quickly returned to Santiago, where he planned to speak from a balcony at the La Moneda presidential palace, and then work past midnight with his ministers.

 

Pinera had vowed to spend billions to make Chile "the best country in the world," accelerating economic growth, creating 1 million jobs and combatting crime while maintaining popular social programs that gave Bachelet 84 percent approval ratings.

 

His victory ended 20 years of center-left governments that followed Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, and put Chile's business elite squarely back in power. But he lacks a legislative majority, and reconstruction will be very expensive.

 

Still, Chile's rainy-day fund has $11 billion in overseas liquid investments, and more than $3.5 billion in damaged property is not only insured, but reinsured abroad. "Because Chile is a country where markets work and people insure themselves, all of a sudden you have the equivalent of $3.5 billion in foreign aid coming in," said Raul Rivera, president of Chile's Innovation Forum. - AP

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 12 MARCH 2010

 

German ARD Text: CHILE'S NEW PRESIDENT VISITS DISASTER AREA AFTER STRONG AFTERSHOCK

According to Chile's new president Sebastian Piñera, rebuilding will be his biggest and most difficult task. He visited the city of CONSTITUCION. He signed a draft bill regarding the distribution of credit notes to the needy. This was one of his pledges during his election campaign. Almost 2 weeks ago, at least 497 were killed in Chile due to the massive earthquake. Since then there have been 3 strong aftershocks.

 

Swedish SVT Text: THE NAVY IN CHILE LIFTED THE TSUNAMI ALERT

The tsunami alert issued by the navy on Thursday afternoon after 3 strong aftershocks had damaged central Chile at the same time as Sebastian Piñera was sworn in as president in Chile was lifted again. The city of Rancagua is reported to have been affected by "significant damage". The Chilean government was criticised for not having issued a tsunami alert in time. The tsunami after the strong earthquake on 27 February killed almost 500 people.

 

Swedish SVT Text: Chile's new president Sebastian Piñera pledged the equivalent of SEK 570m (about $81m) to children from poor families to support them after the quake. The draft bill will be introduced to the Congress very soon. At the same time IDB, the Inter-American Development Bank, pledged 480m dollar (corresponding to SEK 3.3bn) for reconstruction.

Earthquake in Chile

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 13 MARCH 2010

 

ARD Text: RECONSTRUCTION COSTS 22 BN EURO

President Piñera estimates the costs of reconstruction after the massive earthquake in Chile to be about 22 billion EURO. The work will take years, he said in his first speech after his inauguration.

 

Chile will be reluctant to take advantage of foreign loans/credits.

 

In connection with the 8.8 magnitude earthquake on 27 February 2010 , at least 500 people died, and many buildings were destroyed. On Thursday 11 March there were strong aftershocks.

Earthquake hits Chile / news on 15.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 15 MARCH 2010

 

German ZDF Text: MILLIONS OF CHILEANS PLUNGED INTO DARKNESS BY POWER CUT

According to the Chilean electricity distributor Transelec, 80 to 90 % of the 17m population were affected by the power cut. The reason for the power cut was an accident in a transformer. One hour later some cities had light again - also in greater Santiago. In Santiago some people had to be rescued out of subway cars.

 

German ARD Text: POWER CUT IN CHILE

2 weeks after the strong earthquake in Chile, almost all of Chile was hit by a power cut on Sunday evening. 80% of the 17 million inhabitants were affected. According to the government the power grid was so affected by the earthquake that it finally failed Sunday. Suddenly all light went out in the capital Santiago just before 21 o'clock local time (1am Central European Time / CET). The Metro and several shopping centres were evacuated.

 

SVT Text: MASSIVE POWER CUT IN CHILE

80% of Chile's 17m inhabitants were affected by the power cut which covered a 2,000-km (= 1.250-mile) -long area. CONCEPCION which was hard hit by the recent massive earthquake and the capital Santiago were affected.

 

The power cut caused worries among Chileans still experiencing aftershocks after the devastating magnitude-8.8 earthquake that triggered a tsunami on 27 February 2010. The power was quickly restored.

 

 

Danish DR1 (updated at 4pm): A LARGE PART OF CHILE WITHOUT POWER

At 4pm Central European Time, power has been restored for 80% of Chile.

 

Early Monday there were dark villages across Chile. Problems with a 500 kilowatt transformer caused the lack of power according to Chile's Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Hinzpeter.

 

The telephone network is still down in parts of Chile.

 

The power cut has no direct connection to the massive earthquake in February, but Hinzpeter would not dismiss the possibility of the earthquake being the indirect cause of the lack of power in Chile.

 

 

BLACKOUT LEAVES MILLIONS OF CHILEANS IN DARKNESS

 

(03/15/2010 | 11:54 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

SANTIAGO, Chile — A power failure plunged nearly the entire Chilean population into darkness Sunday night, rattling a country already anxious after last month's 8.8-magnitude quake.

 

The outage struck around nightfall and affected a 1,200-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch from Taltal in the north to Chiloe in the south, according to the Interior Ministry's emergency office.

 

Officials blamed a transformer failure that caused a ripple effect and ultimately a total collapse of the Central Interconnected System grid.

 

An hour after the blackout began, lights began to come back on in some cities — including sporadically in greater Santiago, which is home to 7 million people.

 

Officials there initially reported having just 8 percent of the supply needed to meet demand for a normal Sunday evening.

 

Officials said it would take several hours to fully restore service.

 

Between 80 percent and 90 percent of Chile's 17 million people get power from the system and were affected, said Eduardo Andrade, vice president of electricity distributor Transelec.

 

"We hope to restore electrical supply in the coming hours, though we cannot anticipate a specific timeframe," Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said. "We are working very hard so that happens as soon as possible."

 

Hinzpeter said the blackout did not coincide with one of the dozens of powerful aftershocks that have jolted the nation since the Feb. 27 quake and subsequent tsunami, which killed at least 497 people and caused an estimated $30 billion worth in damage.

 

Hundreds more are still missing, and President Sebastian Pinera said Friday that the death toll is likely to rise.

 

Like the initial quake and some of the stronger aftershocks, the outage sent many Chileans out of their homes, shopping malls and movie theaters and into the streets. Dozens of passengers were evacuated from subway cars in the capital, but there were no reports of any injuries.

 

Authorities were investigating, but Presidency official Cristian Larroulet said that "the most likely thing is that the blackout is the result of a weakness in the (transmission) lines as a result of the earthquake." - AP

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8567910.stm

 

Page last updated at 11:37 GMT, Monday, 15 March 2010

 

CHILE PLUNGED INTO DARKNESS BY POWER CUT

 

A fundraising concert was in full swing when the outage happened.

 

A massive power failure has plunged quake-hit Chile into darkness, stretching 2,000km (1,250 miles) and affecting up to 90% of the population.

 

In Santiago thousands were evacuated from the Metro and the failure affected a benefit concert for quake victims.

 

Power went out at 2050 (2350 GMT) on Sunday, when a key transformer failed, and began to return after an hour.

 

Chile's infrastructure was devastated by the quake on 27 February that killed about 500 and cost up to $30bn (£20bn).

 

The power cut is another reminder of the immense tasks facing President Sebastian Pinera, who was inaugurated last week.

 

FLOODLIGHT FAILURE

 

The BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago says the power cut stretched from Taltal in the north to the island of Chiloe in the south, the equivalent of London to Athens.

 

The entire area hit by the earthquake, including the badly affected second city of Concepcion, was plunged into darkness.

 

As well as halting the benefit concert, the big Sunday night football match in Santiago was abandoned after the floodlights failed.

 

The operators of the electricity grid said the blackout was caused by the failure of a high-voltage transformer about 700km south of the capital.

 

Officials said the blackout was not directly related to the earthquake.

 

However, Energy Minister Ricardo Rainieri said Chile's power grid remained fragile and he called on people to restrict their energy consumption.

 

Electricity to about 90% of the country had been restored soon after midnight.

 

One nanny in Santiago, Claudia Morales, told Reuters news agency: "Everyone started to say aloud maybe there had been another quake. Everyone was really panicked."

 

After taking office last week, Mr Pinera said it would cost at least $30bn to rebuild the country, nearly 20% of Chilean GDP.

 

He said loans and budgetary savings would be used to rebuild infrastructure, homes and industry.

 

 

CHILE PUTS QUAKE DAMAGE AT $30BN

 

Page last updated at 21:46 GMT, Friday, 12 March 2010

 

Chile's new President, Sebastian Pinera, has said it will cost at least $30bn (£20bn) to rebuild the country after January's earthquake.

 

Speaking on his first full day in office, he said loans and budgetary savings would be used to rebuild infrastructure, homes and industry.

 

Other nations would be asked to help, Mr Pinera told reporters in Santiago.

 

The 8.8 magnitude quake on 27 February killed nearly 500 people, with hundreds others missing and 1.5m homes damaged.

 

A 6.9-magnitude aftershock rattled the country as Mr Pinera's inauguration was being held.

 

The businessman is the first centre-right politician to come to power in Chile since the end of military rule in 1990.

 

COPPER INCOME

 

Mr Pinera told Friday's news conference that a special fund would be set up to rebuild around 300,000 houses plus hospitals, schools and roads.

 

He acknowledged that he would have to re-allocate funds from other projects to pay for the reconstruction, and that the process would take years, not months.

 

Some of the work would be paid for with income from exports of copper, of which Chile is the world's biggest producer. Fortunately we have had a strong, stable price for copper," he said.

 

As well as budget trimmings, the country would raise money through debt issues and would dip into savings from past copper income saved in investments abroad.

 

Finance Minister Felipe Larrain earlier said that the government had not yet determined how much debt the government would issue.

 

Chile, a model of economic stability in Latin America, can raise money relatively cheaply on international markets because it has an investment grade rating and is considered low-risk, Reuters news agency notes.

 

But $30bn represents nearly 20% of Chilean GDP and would make a significant dent in the state coffers, the BBC's Gideon Long reports from Santiago.

 

Shortly after he was sworn in on Thursday, Mr Pinera flew to some of the areas worst affected by the original quake.

 

In the city of Rancagua, he urged residents to remain calm as the government continued its efforts to reach all those in need.

 

"I want to tell all Chileans that the government will always respond in an effective and timely manner in catastrophes such as the one we have witnessed in order to save all the lives that we can and so that we can quickly reach those people needing help," he said

yay aftershocks :dozey:

Earthquake hits Chile / news articles on 16.3.10

 

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 16 MARCH 2010

 

ZDF Text: A NEW STRONG AFTERSHOCK IN CHILE

3 weeks after the massive earthquake, Chile was - Monday evening - shaken by a strong magnitude-6.7 aftershock off the Pacific coast about 70 km northwest of CONCEPCION according to USGS. The epicentre was in a depth of about 35 km. According to the Chilean ministry in charge of disasters there were no reports of damage, and no tsunami was expected. CONCEPCION was severely damaged by the massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake on 27 February 2010 when about 500 people died.

 

Danish DR1 TTV, TV2 TTV and Swedish SVT Text: CHILE HIT BY A MASSIVE AFTERSHOCK

Monday evening Chile was shaken by a strong magnitude-6.7 earthquake. Its epicentre was 72 km northwest of the city, CONCEPCION. The quake occurred in a depth of 34 km. According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, historic data indicate that aftershocks do no trigger tsuamis, but countries with Pacific coasts should be on alert as there is a risk of gigantic waves.

On 27 February 2010 a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale hit Chile and cost more than 800 human lives. CONCEPCION was one of the worst-hit cities.

Earthquake hits Chile / news on 19.3.10

 

UPDATES / NEWS ARTICLE ON THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 19 MARCH 2010

 

German ARD Text: AFTERSHOCKS IN CHILE LIKELY

 

Chileans must expect strong aftershocks for at least one year after the gigantic earthquake on 27 February 2010.

 

In the next couple of months 25 to 45 tremors will occur with a magnitude of 5.0 and higher according to a US earthquake expert of US Geological Survey in the Chilean capital, Santiago.

 

There is a likelihood of 1 to 3 that even a tremor of magnitude 7.0 will be included in the series of aftershocks to be expected.

 

The earthquake and the tsunami cost 700 human lives on 27 February and caused substantial damage at the value of $30 billion.

Earthquake hits Chile / news article on 21.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION ON 21 MARCH IN CHILE

 

German ARD Text: CHILE: UPDATED DEATH TOLL AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

3 weeks after the devastating earthquake in Chile the authorities have corrected the death toll. While almost immediately after the quake it was reported that more than 800 were killed, the Ministry of the Interior now says that 342 people were killed in the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. In 62 other cases the death circumstances are being examined. The magnitude-8.8 earthquake on 27 February 2010 was one of the strongest qaukes ever recorded. 2 million homes were damaged and 500,000 hereof were severely damaged.

Earthquake hits Chile / news one month after powerful earthquake on 27.2.10

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 27 MARCH 2010

 

TV2 and DR1 Text TV on 27 March 2010: NEW EARTHQUAKE HITS CHILE

 

A new powerful earthquake / aftershock hit Chile. The quake had a strength of magnitude-6.2 according to US Geological Survey. The quake occurred 75 km south of the city of Copiano in a depth of 35 km.

 

The quake could be felt in the capital Santiago 600 km south of the epicentre.

According to the Chilean authorities there were no reports so far of casualties or material damage.

 

Several hundred people were killed in Chile on 27 February 2010 in a even stronger magnitude-8.8 earthquake that triggered tsunamis across the Pacific.

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE / News from UNICEF and Red Cross international - MARCH 2010

 

Found no news dated 28 March 2010 - consulted websites of UNICEF and RED CROSS international and found the articles below:

 

http://www.unicef.org/

 

UNICEF to provide support to nearly one million children affected by earthquake in CHILE

 

Second powerful quake hits Chile today = on 11 March 2010

 

SANTIAGO, 11 March 2010 - UNICEF will provide assistance to the estimated one million children and their families affected by the earthquake in Chile which struck on 27 February.

 

It is unclear how much more damage the second quake today has caused, but the first quake followed by a tsunami caused widespread damage and over 500 deaths. Six regions, home to some 80 per cent of the population of Chile were affected by the quake. The government had declared these regions as "catastrophe zones".

 

The worst affected areas are some of the poorest in the country. Roads have been cut off, and entire villages in the coastal zones were wiped out by the Tsunami. Government buildings, schools, health facilities and at least 500,000 homes have been destroyed or badly damaged.

 

"As in any disaster, children are the ones suffering most. They are particularly vulnerable to cold, hunger and outbreaks of disease. Their lives have been brutally disrupted and many of them will have difficulty coping with such an upheaval. We must help them now," said Gary Stahl, UNICEF Representative in Chile.

 

UNICEF is asking for $3.5 million to meet the immediate and medium-term needs of children and women throughout the affected areas. Assistance will include psychosocial support, emergency education and water and sanitation.

 

UNICEF is working closely with the new government of Chile which was sworn in today.

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Francisca Palma Communication Officer- UNICEF Chile,

Tel + 00 56 2 422 8840

[email protected]

 

Patrick McCormick, UNICEF Media,

Tel + 1 212 326 7426,

[email protected]

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/haiti-feature-180310

 

RED CROSS NEWS:

 

Psychological Support Remains Vital One Month After CHILE Earthquake

 

Friday, March 26, 2010 — As Chilean Red Cross relief distributions to families affected by the massive earthquake that struck central Chile on February 27 continue to gain momentum, special emphasis is being given to psychological support for people traumatized by continuing strong aftershocks.

 

More than 200 aftershocks measuring greater than 5 magnitude have been reported since the disaster a month ago.

 

These strong tremors are particularly distressing to people trying to recover from the trauma of having lost family members and friends, homes, and livelihoods,” explains Gustavo Ramirez, regional representative, currently in Chile. “People who live in the coastal areas are not only afraid of the aftershocks but also of any possible tsunamis they may trigger, and even people whose homes have been assessed as being safe are afraid of staying indoors. They wonder whether these aftershocks will ever end.”

 

The 14-member psychological support team from Spain, supported by staff from the Red Cross societies of Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, as well as by Chilean Red Cross volunteers, have treated nearly 1,700 adults and children since the disaster. They are working in the region of Maule and in Santiago. In addition to holding therapeutic sessions with different groups of people affected by the disaster, with a special emphasis on children, they are also training Red Cross volunteers.

 

Additionally, to ensure people have access to healthcare in areas where hospitals have been destroyed, several other Red Cross teams have been dispatched to the affected regions. A clinic operated by the Spanish Red Cross has treated nearly 1,200 people in Hualañé (Maule region). A second clinic sent by the Japanese Red Cross has been set up in Parral (Bio-Bío region) and the surgical field hospital supported by the Red Cross societies of Canada, Finland and Norway is being set up in Pitrufquén (Araucanía region). These facilities will all be turned over to local staff, who will maintain healthcare services, throughout the next weeks.

 

Chilean Red Cross volunteers also continue their vital work, receiving and packing donated goods, transporting them to the affected areas and DISTRIBUTING FOOD, HYGIENE ITEMS and EMERGENCY ITEMS TO SURVIVORS. To date, more than 2,300 households (approximately 11,600 people) have received kitchen utensils, hygiene items, blankets, water containers and tarps in the most severely-affected regions of Maule and Bío-Bío.

 

In recent weeks, the AMERICAN RED CROSS doubled its contribution to $1 million for relief efforts in Chile and plans to provide additional support in the coming weeks and months as the response progresses. Additionally, it has provided 5,000 water containers, more than 1,100 hygiene kits and one disaster specialist, who is serving on a regional assessment team.

 

The GLOBAL RED CROSS NETWORK collectively aims to PROVIDE HEALTH SERVICES for up to 90,000 people, shelter assistance for 50,000 people, relief items for 75,000 people as well as water and sanitation services for up to 10,000 people within the next year.

 

You can help the victims of countless crises around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.

 

Donations to the International Response Fund can be sent to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013 or made by phone at 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or online at http://www.redcross.org.

Earthquake hits Chile / news posted on 30.3.10

 

UPDATE OF NEWS IN RELATION TO CHILE - 30 MARCH 2010

 

CHILE PRESIDENT PINERA MARKS MONTH SINCE EARTHQUAKE

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8591330.stm / Page last updated at 02:26

GMT, Sunday, 28 March 2010 03:26 UK

 

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has attended a vigil to commemorate exactly one month since a massive earthquake struck the south of the country.

Mr Pinera, speaking in the city of Concepcion, repeated his vow to rebuild areas devastated by the earthquake.

 

The 8.8 magnitude quake and the tsunami it triggered killed nearly 500 people, with thousands more made homeless.

 

Total damage has been estimated at $30bn (£20bn) with more than 1.5m homes across the country damaged.

 

Speaking at the vigil in Concepcion's cathedral, Mr Pinera repeated his pledge to rebuild areas hit by the quake.

 

"We have a debt, a task to rebuild our country," he said.

 

"As president I will lead that reconstruction process, I'll be the bricklayer, the worker, the carpenter, the engineer and also the architect, representing all Chileans and as we have already said, we will rebuild on stone and not on sand."

Mr Pinera said he also planned to extend the presence of the military in some areas to help speed up the rebuilding process.

 

'Dry your tears'

 

Later, he addressed a mass in the square in front of the cathedral, attended by thousands.

 

He called on people to dry their tears and to start working "in the great task of rebuilding Chile".

 

Concepcion, the second largest city in Chile, was severely damaged by the quake and hundreds of its residents are still living in tents in parks and gardens.

Tens of thousands who lost their homes in the regions of Bio Bio and Maule and are still waiting for temporary housing.

 

Mr Pinera took office less than two weeks after the disaster.

Interesting OPINION published on 1 May 2010 on BBC World News

 

BBC WORLD NEWS:

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/30/saginor.quakes.volcanoes/index.html

 

ARE EARTHQUAKES GETTING WORSE? NO!

 

Editor's note: Ian Saginor, Ph.D., is a volcanologist and professor of geology at Keystone College. His research is on the evolution of volcanoes in Central America. (CNN)

 

- Ever since a devastating earthquake struck HAITI on January 12 followed by others in CHILE, BAJA CALIFORNIA and INDONESIA, many people have asked the question, "Are earthquakes getting worse?" The answer is a firm and unequivocal "No."

 

I know it's hard to believe given the devastation these earthquakes have caused and the intense level of media attention they have received. However, it turns out that large earthquake frequency has not changed at all over the last 20 years.

 

But don't take my word for it. Go to the United States Geological Survey website and see for yourself. As of April 25, 2010 is on pace to have approximately 18 earthquakes larger than a magnitude 7 on the Richter Scale.

 

That sure sounds like a lot, but it's only one more than last year and very close to the 15.4 large earthquakes per year that Earth has averaged over the last 20 years. Of course, some years are more active than others, but that is to be expected.

 

In fact, in 1995 there were 20 of these large earthquakes, but nobody talks about that year as being particularly lively. The fact that several of this year's large earthquakes occurred near populated areas only adds to the perception that the overall frequency or intensity of earthquakes has increased.

 

Before the earthquake in Haiti, there hadn't been an earthquake of that size in over two months. This ebb and flow of earthquakes is completely natural. And what about volcanic eruptions? USGS records show they have also remained constant since the 1960s, with between 50 and 70 eruptions each year.

 

Over the last few days, another misconception began to emerge when CNN published an opinion article by author Alan Weisman titled "Is the Earth striking back?" The piece outlined a theory that, as glaciers melt due to global warming, the Earth's crust will begin to stretch and rebound.

 

It goes on to imply that this stretching could cause not only earthquakes, such as in Haiti and Chile, but also volcanic eruptions. The article even suggests this process is responsible for the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland with its neighbor, Katla. "threatening to detonate next." Do these studies exist? Yes. Is this really what they say? No.

 

First, some background. The source of this idea is a series of papers published by the Royal Society in England that looked at the potential effect of climate change on some types of natural disasters. This idea is generally based on the well-known phenomenon that, as Earth's glaciers continue to melt, the crust rebounds as it is relieved of the burden. In fact, this has been happening for thousands of years since the peak of the last ice age.

 

Several of these papers did propose that climate change could affect certain types of earthquakes on the ocean floor or underneath melting glaciers, however, Haiti is neither on the bottom of the ocean nor under a glacier. As for the Chilean quake, it was caused by the incredible amount of pressure generated as two tectonic plates are forced together.

 

The point is that not all earthquakes are caused by the same forces and earthquakes on the ocean floor or under glaciers could not be more different from earthquakes in Haiti or Chile. It's like saying cigarettes cause lung cancer, therefore they cause skin cancer as well.

 

The bottom line is that Weisman's claims that earthquake frequency is increasing and that earthquakes in Haiti and Chile are caused by global warming are unsupported by the scientific articles he uses to form his conclusions. The effect of his article is to take several well-meaning, preliminary, cautious and limited scientific studies and create unnecessary fear and confusion in the general public.

 

If the public concludes that earthquake frequency has increased, it will be wrong. If it concludes that volcano eruption frequency or intensity has increased, it will be wrong. If it believes that earthquakes in Haiti or Chile were caused by global warming, it will not only be wrong, but it will believe it because it was told it was the conclusion of geologists. It wasn't.

 

Most scientific papers do not lend themselves to sound bites or headlines. That means the media needs to do a much better job understanding them. For their part, scientists need to be willing to confront these errors before they spread.

 

Whatever effect climate change has on our planet in the future, inaccurate reporting of research leaves the public at a huge disadvantage and cannot be tolerated.

 

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ian Saginor.

 

By Ian Saginor, Special to CNN

 

April 30, 2010 -- Updated 1301 GMT (2101 HKT)

With all these natural disasters happening in succession, does anyone get the impression that the apocalypse is near?

With all these natural disasters happening in succession, does anyone get the impression that the apocalypse is near?

 

I must admit that I was very surprised to read that the number of natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes had not risen! I had got the impression that it had. But the media might write more about natural disasters nowadays - and many of these disasters took place where many people live so that the number of deaths and the devastation is bigger.

News on 4.5.10 in relation to natural disasters and Chile

 

NEWS on 4 May 2010 in relation to natural disasters

 

Danish TV2 and DR1: POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE OFF CHILE’S COAST

A powerful magnitude-6.4 earthquake hit an area 151 km off Chile’s coast at 1:09am Central European Time according to info given by US Geological Survey. There are no reports of material damage or injured people. The quake struck in a depth of 20.6 km southwest of the seaside/coastal city, Concepcion which was hit by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake in February. The quake and the ensuing tsunami cost at least 452 human lives.

 

German ZDFtext: NEW EARTHQUAKE OFF CHILE’S COAST

An earthquake shook Chile Monday evening (local time). According to the US Geological Survey the epicentre was about 150 km southwest of the City of Concepcion off the coast of the region Bio Bio in a depth of more than 20 km.

There are no reports of damage.

The southern part of Chile was shaken by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake at the end of February. It was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. At least 350 people were killed, and ten thousand are still living in tents or temporary huts.

 

German ARDtext: POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE SHAKES CHILE

A powerful earthquake has shaken Chile. According to the seismological service at the university in Santiago the magnitude was 6.4. The epicentre was about 600 km south of the capital Santiago off the coast of the region Bio Bio in a depth of more than 20 km. There are no reports of damage.

The southern part of Chile was shaken by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake at the end of February. At least 350 people were killed.

 

 

MAGNITUDE-6.4 QUAKE SHAKES CHILE, NO DAMAGES

05/04/2010 | 08:36 AM – GMA News.TV

 

SANTIAGO, Chile — The US Geological Survey says a magnitude-6.4 earthquake has struck of Chile's central coast. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

 

The USGS says the quake's epicenter was 151 kilometers (94 miles) south-southwest of Concepcion, Chile, at a depth of 20 kilometers (12 miles).

 

Radio stations in the Bio-Bio region reported no major damages or injuries from Monday's tremor.

 

The area has been shaken by hundreds of smaller quakes since a huge magnitude-8.8 quake hit on Feb. 27, triggering a tsunami and killing 486 people. On Sunday, a 5.9-magnitude quake struck the area, one of more than a dozen perceptible temblors since Saturday.

 

Tens of thousands of Chileans are still living in tents or temporary huts. — AP