It was 3:34 am when the powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.8 struck central Chile. A Talca, located about 105 km from the epicenter, The historic center of town with its mud houses collapsed almost entirely, and luckily most of these buildings, shops were empty at that hour.
The violent shaking, which lasted 90 seconds and was followed by numerous aftershocks, has shaken buildings in Buenos Aires, capital of neighboring Argentina to over a thousand miles east, and was felt up ‘Sao Paulo (Brazil), 2.900km east.
In Santiago de Chile, 325km north-east of the epicenter, vehicle lay overturned on the roadway of a highway, whose upper ramp collapsed. Although modern buildings are built according to seismic standards, many old buildings have suffered as the Museum of Fine Arts, severely damaged, and the church of Our Lady of Providence, whose tower collapsed and several hospitals were evacuated.
Chilean television showed images of a woman of 92 years, rescued from the rubble of her house where she had been trapped for two hours.
On the coast, in Viña del Mar, very popular in the late austral summer, the earthquake has struck the hour after the last concert of Song Festival, the largest in Latin America, but many of the partygoers were still into a nightclub. “It was horrible. People were screaming, some ran, others were paralyzed, like me,” he told one of them, Julio Alvarez, on Radio Cooperativa, Concerts on Saturday, the last day of the festival have been canceled.
The authorities reported a “very large wave that flooded the lower parts” on the Juan Fernandez archipelago, off the coast and on the island of Robinson Crusoe, but refused to details.
Bridges had collapsed, buildings in ruins, telephones and electricity cut off in many areas of Santiago and Concepcion, the second largest city, south of the capital.
There, the trucks were caught when the earth opened up two on their way, the bridge over the river Bío Bío collapsed, buildings were burning in the southern city and a building of 15 storeys collapsed. Fernando Abarzua, which came out almost unscathed, from the eighth floor “when suddenly everything collapsed.” Six hours later, a family member was still a prisoner of rubble, “but he continues to cry and say he’s fine.”
The epicenter of the earthquake was located 115km from Concepcion, and 95km from the ski Winter Chillán, a major destination ski Andean destroyed during an earlier earthquake in 1939.
The Chileans were asked to keep to the strict necessary travel and phone calls, land lines and cellular connections are severely affected.
Right now, New Zealand’s entire east coast is at great risk with waves up to 3 meters approximately 10 feet are expected to hit the Chatham Islands and Banks Peninsula, near the main South Island city of Christchurch.