By Wil Longbottom   27th February 2010

There were fears tonight a tsunami could wreak devastation across the Pacific after a massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile earlier today. The quake shattered buildings and bridges, killing at least 147 people and setting off a tsunami that threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean - roughly a quarter of the globe. In French Polynesia tonight, tsunami waves up to 6 feet (2 metres) high swept ashore, while in Hawaii, sirens blared to alert residents of the impending waves.  Disaster management officials in Fiji said they had been warned to expect waves as high as 7.5 feet (2.3 metres) to hit the northern and eastern islands and those of nearby Tonga, while tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from several other South Pacific isles. Tsunami waves are likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores later tonight, with the U.S. West Coast and Alaska also under threat. New Zealand's Chatham Islands, which lie to the east of the country, were hit shortly after 7pm (GMT). It comes after the most powerful quake to hit Chile in 50 years brought catastrophic damage to buildings and travel networks, prompting president Michelle Bachelet to declare a 'state of catastrophe' in the country. In Chile's second city of Concepcion, trucks plunged into the fractured earth, homes fell, bridges collapsed and buildings were engulfed in flames. Injured people lay in the streets or on stretchers. TV Chile reported that a 15-storey building collapsed in the city and buildings caught fire, major highway bridges collapsed and cracks opened up in the streets. Many roads were destroyed and electricity and water were cut to many areas. There was still no word of deaths or damage from many outlying areas that were cut off by the quake that struck at 3.34am 200 miles southwest of Santiago. Experts warned that a tsunami could strike anywhere in the Pacific, and Hawaii could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 21.19pm UK time, according to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. A tsunami wave can travel at anything up to 600 mph (965 kph). Earlier today, a huge wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles off the Chilean coast. 'We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks,' said President Bachelet from an emergency response centre. 'Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately,' she said. Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast - 21 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 - the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

 

Mrs Bachelet urged people to avoid travelling, since traffic lights are down, to avoid causing more fatalities. The airport for Chile's capital of Santiago airport was shut down and will remain closed for at least the next 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said.  The passenger terminal suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. TV images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed. The UK's Foreign Office tonight issued revised travel advice, warning that 'all but essential travel' to the Chilean regions of Biobio, Maule and Araucania should be avoided. 'The capital Santiago has also been affected with some damage to older buildings and at least two road flyovers have collapsed,' said the statement. If you are a British national in Chile, you should follow the advice of the local authorities. The British Embassy is so far unable to receive calls. If you are in Chile and require assistance or if you know someone in the affected areas of Chile, please ring the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on +44 207 008 0000.'

 

 

In Concepcion, nurses and residents pushed some of the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms. The epicentre was in the Pacific Ocean 70 miles from Concepcion, where more than 670,000 people live alongside the Bio Bio river. The quake also shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, 900 miles away on the Atlantic side of South America. Marco Vidal - a program director for Grand Circle Travel who was travelling with a group of 34 Americans - was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck. 'All the things start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor. And it was moving like from south to north, oscillated. I felt terrified,' he said. Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train. 'But then I thought, oh, there's no train here. And then the lamps flew off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed.' 'It was scary, but there really wasn't any panic. Everybody kind of stayed orderly and looked after one another,' Miss Iocono 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. An apartment building's two-level car park also flattened onto the ground floor, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms and horns rang incessantly. A bridge just outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car flipped upside down. The quake struck after concert-goers had left South America's leading music festival in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, but it caught partiers leaving a disco.

'It was very bad, people were screaming, some people were running, others appeared paralysed. I was one of them,' Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa in Santiago. Local television showed a buildings in flames in Concepcion and some residents have looted pharmacies and a collapsed grains silo, hauling off bags of wheat, television images showed. Broken glass and chunks of concrete and brick were strewn across roads and several strong aftershocks rattled jittery residents in the hours after the initial quake. One of the major bridges crossing the large Bio Bio river, which runs past Concepcion, has also collapsed. Aid organisations in Britain have been quick to respond to today's earthquake in Chile. Oxfam is sending a team of water engineers and logisticians from Colombia to the stricken country today, along with its lead humanitarian co-ordinator for Latin America. The charity is also contacting partner organisations in Chile so that the humanitarian response is as fast as possible. Jeremy Loveless, Oxfam's deputy humanitarian director, said: 'Even though the severity of the situation is unclear, Oxfam is preparing for the worst and will be sending five staff out to Chile today to assess and consider how best to help the thousands of people affected by the disaster. 'The team flying in have years of experience in responding to earthquakes and Oxfam also has partners in the country who can begin to help immediately. 'Chile is a developed country with a very capable government and while it is unlikely that this disaster will be as severe as what we saw last month in Haiti, we want to be in place to help as soon as possible.' Save the Children today launched an emergency appeal for Chile.

Chile is at high risk of earthquakes because it lies on the boundary between the Pacific plate and the South American plate. The latest quake happened after the Pacific plate pushed down on to the South American plate. According to seismologists, there is usually around one quake of a magnitude of eight a year while one reaching 8.8 would only be expected every few years.

Dr Brian Baptie of the British Geological Survey said: 'In global terms this is a very rare quake. 'Chile has experienced some very big quakes in the past. "It was about 124 miles north east of the largest earthquake ever recorded - 9.5 - in 1960, which resulted in a destructive tsunami that killed many thousands of people around the Pacific.' He said a tsunami wave was observed at Valparaiso, 124 miles north of the epicentre, about 20 minutes after the earthquake. 'Tsunami waves in the deep ocean travel about the same speed as a jet plane and would take about 15 hours to reach Hawaii and about 20 hours to reach the other side of the Pacific,' he added. The devastating tsunami which hit Asia in 2004 measured 9.3 on the Richter scale, making it the second largest ever after the 1960 Chile quake. In London, the Chilean ambassador Rafael Moreno thanked the international community for offers of support but said the situation was 'under control'. He said strict regulations about earthquake-proofing new buildings would have helped to limit the damage. Staff at the embassy in central London have been fielding calls from British-based Chileans who are worried about their families and have been unable to reach them.

 

Pete Garratt, British Red Cross disaster relief manager, said: 'We are already receiving reports of damage and an increasing death toll from areas 156 miles from the epicentre. 'We anticipate the situation in the worst affected areas closer to the epicentre to be much more serious. 'Our fear is that this quake will have had large scale impact. 'The Chilean Red Cross are experienced in reacting to natural disasters and we are making this immediate release of funds to support their relief efforts.' Donations to the British Red Cross disaster relief fund can be made at www.redcross.org.uk. The Haiti earthquake was a shallow 7.0 magnitude quake that killed about bout 230,000 people on January 12. The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States. It was the strongest quake to hit Chile since a magnitude-9.5 temblor rocked southern Chile in 1960. Together with an ensuing tsunami, it killed at least 1,716 people.