Nearly one million residents were forced to evacuate after a magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck off Chile’s northern coast, triggering a small tsunami.
Five people are confirmed dead – four men and one woman, Chilean Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said. 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.
Photos: Powerful Earthquake Hits Chile
Residents Evacuate After Major Earthquake
More than 900,000 people and 11 hospitals were evacuated along the Chilean coastline, government officials said.
About 86,000 people are still at risk in Chile's tsunami alert zone and should remain in secure areas, officials said. Six towns remain under a tsunami alert - Arica, Psauga, Iquique, Patache, Tocopilla and Mejillones.
The quake – which struck six miles beneath the ocean floor and 61 miles west-northwest of Iquique – triggered landslides that blocked roads, knocked out power for thousands, damaged an airport and provoked fires that destroyed several businesses. In Arica, another city close to the quake's offshore epicenter, hospitals treated minor injuries, and some homes made of adobe were destroyed, authorities said.
The earthquake was so strong that the shaking it caused in La Paz, Bolivia, 290 miles from the epicenter, was the equivalent of a 4.5-magnitude tremor, authorities there said. The quake triggered at least eight strong aftershocks in the first few hours, including a 6.2 tremor.
Bachelet's government extended its tsunami warnings for northernmost Chile long after they were lifted elsewhere. Its mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect until nearly dawn for coastal areas north of Antofogasta, a decision backed by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.
"We regard the coast line of Chile as still dangerous, so we're maintaining the warning," geophysicist Gerard Fryer said.
Those currents should reach Hawaii at about 3:30 a.m. local time, Fryer said.
“All of our models are suggesting that it will be strong enough to generate significant currents. And therefore we are advising people to stay off the beach, stay out of the water,” he said.
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