Residents Evacuated After Deadly Quake Strikes Off Chile’s Coast
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FRANCESO DEGASPERI/AFP/Getty Images(SANTIAGO, Chile) — Nearly one million residents were forced to evacuate after a magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck off Chile’s northern coast, triggering a small tsunami.
Six people are confirmed dead, Chilean Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said. Many of the victims died from heart attacks or falling debris.
The extent of the damage from Tuesday night’s quake couldn’t be fully assessed before daybreak, President Michelle Bachelet said, but she wasn’t taking any chances, declaring a state of emergency for the northern part of the country and deploying armed forces to prevent looting.
Military officials are also rounding up prisoners who escaped from a women’s prison in the city of Iquique. Officials said 39 of the 300 prisoners who escaped have been recaptured.
More than 900,000 people and 11 hospitals were evacuated along the Chilean coastline, government officials said.
The quake — which struck six miles beneath the ocean floor and 61 miles west-northwest of Iquique — was strong enough to be felt nearly 300 miles away in the Bolivian capital of Sucre. It was initially measured at 8.0, but was later upgraded, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a six-foot tsunami hit Pisagua, Chile, at 8:04 p.m. ET. There was some damage reported on roads linking northern towns between Iquique and Alto Auspicio, but it wasn’t immediately clear how much.
A tsunami alert was lifted early Wednesday for Chile and Peru while an advisory remained in effect for Hawaii. Alerts were cancelled for Ecuador, Colombia and Panama. Tsunami watches were also cancelled for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
The quake also triggered at least eight strong aftershocks in the first few hours, including a 6.2 tremor.
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