Rescue teams have begun to search for survivors after one of the largest earthquakes on record killed at least 300 people in Chile and sent giant waves roaring across the Pacific Ocean.
In an address to the nation, President Michelle Bachelet said that two million Chileans had been affected by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake. After touring the worst-hit areas by air, however, she said it was hard to quantify the magnitude of the disaster.
"The power of nature has again struck our country," Ms Bachelet said, declaring six of Chile's 15 regions "catastrophe zones" in the aftermath of the earthquake, one of the world's most powerful for a century.
An estimated 1.5 million homes were damaged, highways were sliced to pieces, bridges imploded and buildings collapsed as the earthquake struck the South American nation of 16 million people just before dawn on Saturday about 200 miles southwest of the capital SantiagoWaves more than 7ft high crashed into the Chilean coast after the quake struck at 3.34am (06.34 GMT) and tore out into the Pacific, killing at least five people in the remote Robinson Crusoe islands.
In the Chilean port of Talcahuano, trawlers were swept inland to the town square, where they lay marooned next to abandoned cars.
About 50 countries and territories along an arc stretching from New Zealand to Russia are braced for giant waves, five years after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster that killed more than 220,000 people.
More than 70,000 people fled vulnerable coastal areas of Japan as a tsunami hit the country's long Pacific coastline. The first wave hit Nemuro on the northern island of Hokkaido in the early afternoon. However, the Government later downgraded the tsunami warning to "normal".
Alerts in Australia and Russia were also downgraded as the threat passed.
The earthquake has raised a daunting first challenge for Sebastian Pinera, the billionaire who was elected Chile's President in January and who takes office in two weeks.
"We're preparing ourselves for an additional task, a task that wasn't part of our governing plan: assuming responsibility for rebuilding our country," he said yesterday. "It's going to be a very big task and we're going to need resources."
The US Geological Survey said it had recorded more than 51 aftershocks ranging from 4.9 to 6.9 since the quake.
In Concepcion, a city of 670,000 people 70 miles southwest of the quake's epicentre, hundreds of people spent the night outside in tents and makeshift shelters, fearful of the aftershocks.
The city's old houses appeared to have borne the brunt of the damage, but a 15-storey apartment block also collapsed, probably killing or trapping many people inside.
The city was mostly blanketed in darkness, with the only light coming from bonfires and occasional police cars. Crushed cars, downed power lines and shattered glass littered the streets.
The European Union said that it would provide €3 million in immediate assistance. Unlike Haiti, struck by a devastating earthquake last month, Chile is one of Latin America's wealthiest countries.
President Obama said that America “will be there” if Chile asks for rescue and recovery help, but Ms Bachelet said that her Government had not asked for assistance from other countries.
Source:The times
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