Chile lifted an evacuation order of coastal areas after the strongest earthquake in four years killed six people and prompted President Michelle Bachelet to order military leaders to the region to maintain order.
More than 900,000 people in low-lying areas returned to their homes as authorities today canceled the last of tsunami alerts along the length of the country. The death toll from the magnitude-8.2 earthquake last night rose to six, Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said in televised remarks.
The quake struck at 8:47 p.m. local time 95 kilometers (59 miles) off the coast of the city of Iquique at a depth of 20 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Copper prices pared gains today after mining companies said their sites suffered no damage. Chile is the biggest copper-producing nation.
“The country has been able to withstand these first few hours of emergency,” Bachelet, who plans to travel to the region today after declaring Arica-Parinacota and Tarapaca catastrophe areas, said on state television. “We’ve taken the necessary measures.”
Bachelet, who was criticized for not using the military quickly enough after a devastating earthquake near the end of her first term in office in February 2010, also said she would send the heads of various branches of the armed forces to the region to lead efforts to maintain order. The 2010 quake killed about 500 people and caused $30 billion in damage and losses.
Power Restored
Last night’s quake caused landslides and triggered at least one fire in Iquique. Water and power supplies continued as normal in many areas, Television Nacional reported. Electricity has now been restored everywhere but the port city of Iquique, power distributor Cia. General de Electricidad SA said in e-mailed statements. A church tower in the town of Huara collapsed after the tremor, the local mayor Carlos Silva told TVN.
While the country continued to feel aftershocks, with a 6.0-magnitude temblor at 1:46 a.m. local time, Tsunami warnings that were issued for much of the Pacific Ocean have now been canceled, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
The government sent extra police to Iquique to help maintain order, Penailillo said. More than 300 convicts had escaped a prison in the city, he said.
There was an attempt at looting in the port of Iquique, regional governor Gonzalo Prieto told Radio Cooperativa. Air-force troops were bolstering police who were guarding supermarkets and gas stations in the region, he said.
Highways Blocked
“At the beginning it was chaotic as people started evacuating in cars, which is not allowed,” said Justin Sturrock, a resident in the northern city of Antofagasta. “The highway is blocked and there are traffic jams everywhere.”
The copper contract for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.5 percent to $6,694 a metric ton as of 10:59 a.m. London time, having earlier advanced 1 percent to a three-week high.
Teck Resources Ltd.’s Quebrada Blanca mine in northern Chile is operating normally, spokeswoman Claudia Onetto said in an e-mail. The site is next to Anglo American Plc and Glencore Xstrata Plc’s Collahuasi mine near the border with Bolivia.
“We evacuated Collahuasi last night for obvious safety reasons,” James Wyatt-Tilby, a spokesman for London-based Anglo, said in an e-mail. “We will be inspecting the site for any damage today. Other operations in Chile are operating.”
Refinery Evacuated
Antofagasta Plc.’s copper mines are far enough away from the epicenter not to be affected, the London-based company said.
Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, also said its mines in the Antofagasta region were unaffected. The company evacuated workers from its Ventanas refinery division and from Mejillones, where Codelco is building a molybdenum plant. Three ships waiting to load at the Angamos port in Mejillones were put farther out to sea, the company said.
Empresa Nacional del Petroleo’s Bio Bio refinery wasn’t affected by the evacuation, a company official said.
Iquique has experienced tremors over the past few weeks and a larger earthquake was not a surprise, Bruce Tresgrave, a geophysicist with the USGS, said on Bloomberg Television.
“Chile is actually quite well prepared for tsunamis,” he said. “There is always the possibility of communications failure.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Craze in Santiago at mcraze@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Philip Sanders at psanders@bloomberg.net James Attwood
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