Elliott Yamin in need of diabetes supplies in Chile

Former American Idol contestant Elliott Yamin told Fox that he’s fearing for his health, as he’s running out of medical supplies to treat his Type 1 diabetes while he’s stuck in the earthquake-ravaged Chile. “I only packed enough insulin supplies for my pump to last a couple more days, so I’m starting to worry,” he told Fox. “I don’t know how long we’re going to be here. This country isn’t very keen on insulin pumps; supplies for my pump are running low. Hospitals here are very crowded, and as you can imagine, they are dealing with bigger things.” Yamin was in Chile to perform at a musical festival 90 miles outside Santiago. (It’s since been relocated to Santiago.)

He might be worried for his health, but Yamin seems to be more optimistic on his Twitter account. Though he had tweeted a disconcerting message a few hours ago — “i think im starting to have post traumatic stress, as i reflect on where ive been over the last 2 weeks, and what ive been thru..altho im safe, alive,and well,still experiencing aftershox,and will b restless until i touch down on american soil” — his tweets have since brightened: “Wow, this is actually a very beautiful city!”

Source:news-briefs.ew.com/

Chile Looting Eases as Aftershocks Persist

Aftershocks continue to rattle Chile, days after the devastating 8.8 earthquake.

In the first 72 hours after Saturday's quake, there were 131 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater.

Complete Coverage: Earthquake in Chile
How to Help: Aid Organizations, Mobile Giving

And officials continue to count the dead. Chile's National Disaster Office says almost 800 are now known to have died.

One town is using a church as a morgue. In another, people are burying the dead quickly because the funeral home has no electricity.

Most of the deaths came in communities along Chile's south-central Pacific coast, near the quake's epicenter, where tsunami waves swept the shore.

Among the victims were 40 retirees enjoying summer vacation at a seaside campground. The tsunami hit them in three waves, surging 200 meters into the resort town of and dragging away the bus they'd piled into, hoping to get to high ground.

Aid is starting to arrive in Chile, including 25 satellite phones from the United States dropped off today by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

More coverage of the earthquake in Chile

Chile Quake May Have Shortened Earth's Day
Tsunami Swept Bus with Retirees into Ocean
Small Plane Carrying Aid Crashes in Chile
Chileans Cope, Awaiting Aid
Chile: Aid Trickles Out but Looters Remain

Argentina has flown in a field hospital, while Brazil and Peru are sending cargo planes with supplies, hospitals and doctors.

Chilean troops have been dispatched to the earthquake zone to discourage looting, and officials have begun handing out food and water.

When supplies arrived in the central Chilean city of Constitucion, people didn't cheer. They jeered, furious with Chile's president that it took so long, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann.

"She should come here," one man said, referring to Chile President Michelle Bachelet. "We need help. We don't have anything here."

Relief workers have their own frustration, Strassmann reports. With so many collapsed and closed roads and bridges, many areas desperate for help are cut off, and works have to hear yet again "You can't get there from here."

Looting Eases in Concepcion

CONCEPCION - Looting has eased in Chile's second-largest city after 1,500 troops arrived to enforce a curfew.

Nearly every store in Concepcion has been looted following the weekend earthquake that left much of the city in ruins. Some stores were set on fire.

Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, says 14,000 soldiers and marines have been deployed for security across the earthquake zone, and hundreds of tons of food, water and other basics are being flown in.

The magnitude 8.9 quake early Saturday has killed at least 723 people. Most of the deaths have been in communities along Chile's south-central Pacific coast, closest to the epicenter.

The quake set off a tsunami that sent waves 200 yards into one resort town, destroying about 300 homes and dragging away a bus carrying 40 vacationing retirees.

Clinton Promises More Aid

SANTIAGO - The secretary of state has delivered satellite phones - and Clinton is promising more aid to earthquake-ravaged Chile as it recovers from the deadly disaster.

At a news conference today with Chile's president in Santiago, Clinton said the U.S. would also send water purification systems and a mobile field hospital with surgical capability that is "ready to go."

Clinton said the U.S. is "ready to help in any way" that Chile requests.

Chile's president said her country also needs temporary bridges and cash donations to buy food and medicine, as well as generators.

Search of Toppled Apartment Building Resumes

CONCEPCION - The search for survivors has resumed at a toppled apartment building in the Chilean city of Concepcion.

Firefighters have already pulled 25 survivors and nine bodies from the structure, heavily damaged in Saturday's quake.

Security in the city is still a concern. A curfew that was in effect overnight has been extended until noon today, in an effort to crack down on looting.

Most markets in the city have been ransacked by looters, and by people desperate for food, water, toilet paper and other essentials. Troops were sent in, and dozens of arrests have been made.

All along the coast, in areas affected by the quake, food is scarce and destruction is widespread. In one community, the local church is serving as a morgue. In another, people quickly buried their dead because the funeral home has no electricity.

Chile's president says authorities are flying hundreds of tons of food, water and other basics into the region.

© MMX, CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source:cbsnews.com/

Clinton Visits Chile, Pledges Support in Wake of Deadly Earthquake

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged U.S. support Tuesday to earthquake-stricken Chile during the third stop on her six-nation tour of Latin America.

Clinton told reporters in Santiago the United States stands ready to help Chile in any way the government needs.

Speaking alongside Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Clinton said the U.S. is "grateful" for what Chile did in Haiti after that country's devastating earthquake earlier this year. She said the Chilean rescue teams were "some of the best" in the world.

During her brief visit to the Chilean capital, Secretary Clinton is holding talks with Chile's president-elect, Sebastian Pinera, who takes office next week.

Secretary Clinton also brought much-needed satellite phones to the country. Other details of U.S. aid are being discussed during Clinton's visit.

On Monday, Clinton met in Buenos Aires with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who asked for help mediating Argentina's dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands.

Clinton said the U.S. will encourage both nations to engage in diplomacy, but will not commit to a more involved role.

Clinton began her trip in Uruguay.

Her next stop is Brazil, where on Wednesday she plans to urge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to join the United States in supporting new U.N. sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.

She also plans to visit Costa Rica and Guatemala before heading back to the United States.

The U.S. takes a neutral position on the competing claims over the British-held Falkland Islands, which are nearly 500 kilometers from the South American coast. Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over the Falklands, which it refers to as Las Malvinas. It seized the islands in April 1982, and held them for two months until British forces retook control.

Source:voanews.com/

Chile looks for outside help in quake recovery

Chile is reaching out for help from the international community as it tries to restore the basic necessities in its quake-ravaged cities and towns following last weekend's 8.8-magnitude disaster.

Chilean authorities have so far confirmed 723 deaths that can be attributed to the quake and its aftermath. Some 500,000 Chilean houses were also damaged or destroyed.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said hundreds of tons of food, water and other supplies were being shipped into disaster-ravaged areas by airplane.

Several South America countries rushed to Chile's aid following news of the quake. Argentina sent six planeloads filled with a field hospital, doctors and water treatment plants, all of which were to arrive by the end of Tuesday. Brazil also sent a field hospital, along with rescue teams.

Nathan Crooks, a Santiago-based editor with Business News Americas, said the Chilean government has been successful in getting food and water out to quake survivors, but needs help with its logistical supply efforts.

"They are seeing now that the more help you have the better. So, anyone who wants to help, they are going to accept it," Crooks told CTV's Canada AM by telephone.

Elisabeth Byrs, a UN humanitarian spokesperson, said Chile was looking for temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones and generators, as well as water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis equipment to help with its recovery. It also is seeking damage assessment teams as it further probes the devastation.

In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs had made contact with 520 Canadians since the quake. But another 337 have not been located.

Tsunami-related deaths

Most of the deaths occurred in the wine-growing Maule region along Chile's south-central coast.

Less than half an hour after the quake, massive waves crashed onto coastal towns, though the Chilean navy did not immediately issue a tsunami warning -- a turn of events that Chilean Defence Minister Vidal has acknowledged was a mistake. Instead, local port captains called their own warnings, which Vidal said may have helped to save hundreds of lives.

In the resort town of Pelluhue, a group of 40 retirees were killed as they tried to escape the coming waves by bus. The water dragged the passengers to their presumed deaths and authorities have so far only found five of their bodies.

Claudio Escalona fled his home near the same campground where the retirees were staying.

"We ran through the highest part of town, yelling, 'Get out of your homes!'" Escalona told The Associated Press.

"About 20 minutes later came three waves, two of them huge, about six metres each, and a third even bigger. That one went into everything."

Escalona said survivors could "hear the screams of children, women, everyone."

Houses destroyed; family members, friends lost

In the port town of Talcahuano, Mayor Gaston Saavedra said 80 per cent of the 180,000 residents are homeless following the quake.

"The port is destroyed. The streets, collapsed. City buildings, destroyed," said Saavedra.

Talcahuano resident Marioli Gatica and her family were sitting on the floor of her home when the tsunami crashed into its walls, tearing it apart.

"We were sitting there one moment and the next I looked up into the water and saw cables and furniture floating," Gatica said.

Her 11-year-old daughter survived the disaster by clinging to a tree while the wave retreated.

The family lost Gatica's 76-year-old mother, Nery Valdebenito, who she believes is trapped underneath her home.

Further north in the village of Dichato, Mayor Eduardo Aguilera said some residents fled for higher ground in advance of the tsunami threat, but returned too early and were caught by the giant waves.

Aguilera said 800 houses were destroyed and 49 village residents are still missing.

Several hours north in the coastal town of Constitucion, journalist Dominic Phillips said the region was "one of the worst-hit towns" in Saturday's disaster.

"There are a lot of wooden houses on the seafront which were completely destroyed. In the bay front area, along the beach, I saw massive devastation -- trucks overturned, houses destroyed, buildings reduced to just piles of rubble," he told CTV News Channel, speaking by telephone from Talca, Chile.

In Concepcion, the city hit hardest by the quake, authorities were still unable to restore power and police were trying to keep looting under control.

Nearly all of the city's markets had been ransacked for people looking for basic necessities including food, water and toilet paper.

Troops had imposed curfews in Concepcion, which were approved by Bachelet.

Restoring power for city residents also remains a challenge, Crooks said.

"They still don't have any power and we're a couple of days into this now," Crooks told CTV's Canada AM by telephone.

"The government has said that the problem with power is not generation or transmission, but it's the distribution lines that were just mostly destroyed. So, they're having to go street-by-street, house-by-house and literally reconnect everything."

Source:edmonton.ctv.ca/

Clinton heading to Latin America after Chile quake

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's weeklong, five-nation tour of Latin America is certain to focus on the earthquake in Chile while she also tries to build support for fresh penalties against Iran.

The schedule released before the quake Saturday included a visit to Santiago, Chile's capital, beginning Monday night. Aftershocks have rattled Chile and authorities were assessing damage, raising the possibility of changes to her itinerary.

But Clinton, set to depart Sunday evening, made clear she would show U.S. support for disaster rescue and recovery operations.

"Our hemisphere comes together in times of crisis, and we will stand side-by-side with the people of Chile in this emergency," Clinton said Saturday after President Barack Obama called Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to offer assistance.

Clinton starts her trip in Uruguay at Monday's inauguration of the country's new president, ex-guerrilla Jose Mujica. Mujica's election in November won praise from other left-leaning populist leaders in the region, including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, a perennial thorn in the side of the U.S. who is cultivating closer ties with Iran.

In the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, Clinton will see Mujica and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner. U.S. officials say she has no plans for separate meetings with other inauguration guests — for example Chavez or other like-minded leaders such as Ecuador's Rafael Correa or Bolivia's Evo Morales.

The Obama administration has been pleased by Uruguay's contributions to U.N. peacekeeping forces and Argentina's stance on Iran's nuclear program, and Clinton will encourage Mujica and Kirchner to continue those policies, U.S. officials said.

Kirchner may raise Argentina's dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands, but Clinton is not expected to bring it up. "This is a matter for Argentina and for Britain and it's not a matter for the United States to make a judgment on," the top U.S. diplomat for the Americas, Arturo Valenzuela, said Friday.

Clinton's announced schedule puts her in Chile late Monday for talks with Bachelet and President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who takes office March 11.

Her visit was intended to showcase U.S. enthusiasm for Bachelet's message of social inclusion, particularly women's empowerment. It may take on more urgency as Chile struggles to recover for the quake. Clinton also visited Haiti days after a powerful earthquake hit that nation in January.

In Brazil, the chief U.S. diplomat plans talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose support the U.S. is seeking for a new round of U.N. Security Council penalties against Iran over its nuclear program.

Brazil, a voting member of the Security Council, has been reluctant to additional penalties. Its leaders have expressed a desire to improve relations with Iran, and Lula plans to visit Tehran in May.

Clinton hopes to win Brazil's backing for sanctions as well a commitment to press Iran to comply with international demands to prove that its nuclear intentions are peaceful.

"We will be telling our Brazilian counterparts that we encourage them to encourage Iran to regain the trust of the international community by fulfilling its international obligations, which we feel that they have not fulfilled," Valenzuela said before Clinton's trip.

Clinton also will attend a meeting in Costa Rica of regional foreign ministers that will focus on improving economic conditions in the hemisphere. She expects to see outgoing President Oscar Arias, who brokered an accord that ended the political crisis in Honduras last year.

Clinton will also meet with incoming Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla before wrapping up her tour in Guatemala on Friday.

In Guatemala, Clinton will meet a group of Central American leaders, including Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, who took over in late January from an interim government that had ousted leader Manuel Zelaya in a coup last June, leading to a political crisis.

Source:AFP

Chile quake toll tops 300

One of the largest earthquakes on record has killed at least 300 people in Chile and sent giant waves roaring across the Pacific Ocean that forced Japan on tsunami alert almost a day later.

In an address to the nation, President Michelle Bachelet said two million Chileans had been affected by Saturday's quake but, after touring the worst-hit areas by plane, she found it hard to spell out the magnitude of the disaster.

"The power of nature has again struck our country," Bachelet said, declaring six of Chile's 15 regions "catastrophe zones" in the aftermath of the 8.8-magnitude quake.

Click for more photos Damaged buildings in Santiago. The massive quake plunged much of the Chilean capital into darkness as it snapped power lines and severed communications. Photo: AFP


Highways in the South American nation of 16 million were sliced to pieces, bridges imploded and buildings collapsed as the 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck some 325km southwest of the capital Santiago at 3.34am local time (5.34pm AEDT).

"This is a catastrophe of immense proportions, so it will be very difficult to give precise figures," Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said. Officials later said at least 300 people had been killed.

Waves well over two metres high crashed into the Chilean coast after the quake struck at 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 sent shooting inland to the town square where they lay oddly marooned next to abandoned cars.

About 50 countries and territories along an arc stretching from New Zealand to Japan braced for giant waves, five years after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster that killed more than 220,000 people.

The ominous sound of evacuation sirens blared in Hawaii, French Polynesia and the South Pacific as a tsunami raced around the "Ring of Fire", but authorities in Hawaii later gave the all clear.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that waves of up to three metres could hit the northern coastal areas and issued tsunami warnings for up to two metres along the entire Pacific coastline of the Japanese archipelago.

The massive quake plunged much of the Chilean capital Santiago into darkness, snapping power lines and severing communications. The international airport was closed after sustaining significant damage to the terminal.

Many Chileans were still in nightclubs partying at the start of the weekend when the quake struck before dawn, ripping up roads, bringing roofs crashing down and toppling power lines.

"It was the worst experience of my life," said 22-year-old Sebastian, standing outside his house in eastern Santiago.

AFP journalists spoke of walls and masonry collapsing in Santiago while people in pyjamas fled onto the streets as buildings "shook like jelly".

"Friends who were at clubs said it was pandemonium," said Santiago resident Maren Andrea Jimenez, an American expert working for the United Nations.

"It was scary! Plaster began falling from the ceiling. My dogs freaked out."

President Barack Obama said the United States "stands ready to assist in the rescue and recovery efforts, and we have resources that are positioned to deploy should the Chilean government ask for our help."

"Early indications are that hundreds of lives have been lost in Chile and damage is severe. On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the Chilean people," he said at the White House.

Despite officials saying up to 1.5 million homes could be affected, Chile's Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez asked countries that had offered aid to hold off until local authorities could assess the emergency needs.

Chile does not want "aid from anywhere to be a distraction" from disaster relief, Fernandez said, adding: "Any aid that arrives without having been determined to be needed really helps very little."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, due to leave Sunday on a Latin American tour that includes Chile, said she was in close contact with Bachelet and that "our thoughts and prayers" went out to the victims.

The European Union said it would provide 3 million euros ($4.58 million) in immediate assistance. Unlike Haiti, struck by a devastating earthquake last month, Chile is one of Latin America's wealthiest countries.

The US Geological Survey said it had recorded more than 51 aftershocks ranging from 4.9 to 6.9 since the quake. A second 6.1-magnitude quake, said to be an entirely separate event, killed two people in neighbouring Argentina.

Earthquake-prone Chile lies along the Pacific rim of fire and is regularly rocked by quakes, but damage is often limited as they mostly hit in remote desert regions.

It was the second major earthquake to hit the Western hemisphere in seven weeks after more than 200,000 people were killed in Haiti last month by a 7.0-magnitude quake.

The epicentre was just a few hundred miles north of the biggest earthquake on record, a 9.5-magnitude monster in May 1960 that killed between 2200 and 5700 people and triggered a huge tsunami that reached as far as eastern New Zealand.

Source:smh.com.au/

Chile's Codelco halts two mines due quake

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's Codelco, the world's top copper producer, suspended operations at its El Teniente and Andina mines after a powerful quake hit Chile on Saturday, a company spokesman said.

The mines sustained power outages after the quake, but there was no serious damage and the spokesman said Codelco expected the mines to be up and running in the "coming hours."

However, Mining Minister Santiago Gonzalez told reporters it could take up to two days for production to be resumed at the two mines.

El Teniente and Andina are Codelco's second- and third-largest mines by production, with combined annual output last year of 614,000 tons. The rest of the state miners' operations were not affected by the quake, the spokesman said.

Gonzalez added that the Bio Bio oil refinery, run by state energy company ENAP, had been more seriously affected.

Bio Bio is the biggest of ENAP's three oil refineries and has a refining capacity of 116,000 barrels per day.

(Reporting by Alonso Soto and Fabian Cambero; Writing by Helen Popper; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Source:reuters.com/

Chile Hit by 8.8 Earthquake; Will Haiti Be Forgotten?

Warnings and Advisories for US
An 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile Saturday morning, its epicenter in the country's second largest city, Conception. AFP reported early estimates placing the death toll at 78, but Chilean officials acknowledge

Chile Hit by 8.8 Earthquake; Will Haiti Be Forgotten?
that the number could rise as more information is received. CNN is reporting a death toll of 82. Power and phone outages in the Chilean capital Santiago are impeding communications. Santiago is 200 miles from the earthquake epicenter.

According to CNN, there are reports of collapsed buildings and throngs of people taking to the streets. President Michelle Bachelet has declared areas affected by the quake "catastrophes," a designation that enables emergency aid to be directed to those areas.

The Santiago airport is closed and a bridge connecting northern and southern areas of Chile was damaged.

There have already been several strong aftershocks, including one measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a Tsunami warning for the Pacific region. Easter Island is being evacuated. The United States could be affected by any tsunami unleashed by the earthquake; Hawaii is covered by the tsunami warning while California and Alaska are under tsunami advisories. The tsunami is expected to reach Hawaii at about 4:20 p.m. Saturday; its intensity is uncertain.

Chile is in the Pacific Rim of Fire where 90% of the world's earthquakes occur, including the most dangerous. While China has suffered the deadliest earthquakes, today's 8.8 is not the first strong earthquake to hit Chile. In 1960, the Valdivia earthquake killed 1,655 Chileans according to the National Geological Survey. Though Chile has suffered many other strong earthquakes, they often occur in its deserts, minimizing the death toll and destruction.

Chile's earthquake comes 6 weeks after a deadly 7.0 earthquake leveled Haiti's capital and killed hundreds of thousands of Haitians. Associated Press reported that a geophysicist said on the Early Show that the Chile quake's energy was 500 times that of the Haiti quake.

When the destructive effect of the Haiti earthquake became apparent, governments and aid groups rushed to provide food, water and medical services. Whether such outside aid will be needed in Chile is not yet clear.

Chile Hit by 8.8 Earthquake; Will Haiti Be Forgotten?
The British Red Cross sent 5,000 pounds in disaster aid money. The American Red Cross pledged an initial $50,000. The European Union issued a statement this morning, indicating its readiness to assist if called upon by Bachelet. Oxfam is reported to be sending water engineers and logisticians based in Colombia to Chile to aid in the quake aftermath.

"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 effected by the disaster," Jeremy Loveless, Oxfam's deputy humanitarian director told the Vancouver Sun.

Government and charity refocus of earthquake relief efforts on Chile raises the specter that Haiti might be forgotten. Will Haiti become another New Orleans? The American Red Cross released a video status report on the Haiti relief effort noting that shelter will be needed for up to 400,000 people during the upcoming rainy season. The need for food, water and supplies in Haiti is expected to continue for at least a year. And none of this speaks to the rebuilding of a capital whose infrastructure is in ruins.

Source:associatedcontent.com/

Coastal B.C. under tsunami advisory

VANCOUVER - Coastal British Columbia was put under a tsunami advisory following the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile on Saturday.

The quake struck Chile early Saturday, killing at least 122 people, knocking down homes and hospitals and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.

Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) officials said no significant wave is expected, but there are expectations for strong localized currents that could put low-lying areas at risk with the arrival of the first wave expected to arrive off B.C.'s south coast by 3:11 p.m.

PEP issued the warning at 7 a.m. this morning after the West Coast Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre upgraded the B.C. coast to the advisory level following the massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile.

PEP said local governments may consider activating their emergency plans to evacuate marinas, beaches and areas below the normal high tide mark.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned dozens of countries and remote island nations from Hawaii to Japan of possible "widespread damage" from waves, generated by the massive quake which may reach three meters (nine feet).


"Sea level readings confirm that a tsunami has been generated which could cause widespread damage," the Hawaii-based center said. "Authorities should take appropriate action in response to this threat."


The massive quake plunged much of the Chilean capital, Santiago, into darkness as it snapped power lines and severed communications. The international airport was closed after being damaged.

Source:vancouversun.com/

Chile earthquake: Pacific nations brace for tsunami

A collapsed highway near Santiago after an earthquake hit Chile. Photograph: David Lillo/AP

A wide array of Pacific nations, including the US, Australia, the Phillipines to Japan, are bracing for potentially devastating tidal waves after a massive earthquake in Chile triggered a tsunami which is radiating across the ocean.

The quake, with a magnitude of 8.8, has already killed at least 120 people in mainland Chile and prompted the evacuation of coastal areas on Easter Island – famous for its monumental stone statues – as well as Samoa and American Samoa.

Countries across the Asia-Pacific region are readying emergency measures drawn up after the Indian Ocean quake of 2004, with the tsunami expected to hit in the next 24 hours.

Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing Chilean president, declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile and said a huge tidal wave had swept into the Juan Fernandez Islands. Local radio stations reported serious damage on the archipelago, which reputedly inspired the novel Robinson Crusoe.

The president-elect, Sebastian Pinera, said more than 120 people had died in the quake, and the toll was rising quickly. Bachelet said there were more than 85 deaths just in the Maule region, at the quake's epicentre.

"We have had a huge earthquake with some aftershocks. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately. Without a doubt, with an earthquake of this magnitude, there will be more deaths," Bachelet said.

Chile's interior minister, Edmundo Perez Yoma, said: "It has been a devastating earthquake. The death toll will continue rising."

Warnings of tidal waves were issued in 53 other countries. The Pacific tsunami warning centre said the quake had generated a wave that could cause destruction along nearby shores "and could also be a threat to more distant coasts". It issued a tsunami warning for Chile, Peru and Hawaii, while Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Antarctica are also on alert.

"Chile probably got the brunt force of the tsunami already. So probably the worst has already happened in Chile," said Victor Sardina, geophysicist at the centre. "The tsunami was pretty big too. We reported some places around 8ft. And it's quite possible it would be higher in other areas."

The centre warned that waves up to 4.8 metres high could hit the coasts of the Hawaiian islands, with the first reaching Hawaii at 9pm GMT. "Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property," the centre said in a bulletin. "All shores are at risk no matter which direction they face."

It said the first waves after a quake were not necessarily the largest, and wave heights were difficult to predict because they can vary significantly along a coast due to the local topography.

Chile's navy said officials had lifted the tsunami warning in southern Chile, local radio reported. The Joint Australian tsunami warning centre warned of a "potential tsunami threat" to the states of New South Wales and Queensland, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.

The quake, which shook buildings as far away as Argentina, was centred 200 miles south-west of Santiago at a depth of 22 miles, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). It reported 11 aftershocks, five of them measuring 6.0 or above, in the two and a half hours following the quake. The epicentre was 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile's second largest city, with a population of about 670,000.

The USGS warned that an earthquake of magnitude 8 or above could cause "tremendous damage". The quake that devastated Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, in January was magnitude 7.0.

Santiago's international airport was forced to close, a highway bridge collapsed and rubble from damaged buildings fell on to the streets. Speaking to a local television station in Temuco, one witness said: "Never in my life have I experienced a quake like this, it's like the end of the world."

Chile is at a high risk of earthquakes because it lies on the boundary between the Pacific and South American tectonic plates. According to seismologists, there is usually about one quake of magnitude eight or more a year, and one reaching 8.8 would be expected only 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 1.3-metre tsunami wave was observed at Valparaiso 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 said.

Dr David Rothery, senior lecturer at the Open University's department of earth and environmental sciences, said the tsunami was "now radiating away from the epicentre and travelling at several hundred kilometres per hour across the Pacific ocean".

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on 22 May 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless, and caused a tsunami that killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

That tsunami was about one to four metres in height, according to Japan's meteorological agency. It said the tsunami from today's quake was likely to be much smaller.

Source:guardian.co.uk/

EU's response to Chile earthquake: aid commissioner Georgieva's statement

European Union's first response to the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile on February came from European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva.

Her full statement follows.

"I have been following the news of the large earthquake off Chile overnight. I want to first offer my condolences to the families of those who have been effected by this natural disaster."

"I have immediately activated the Crisis Room at the Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), which is working with the European Union's delegation in Santiago. I have mobilized ECHO humanitarian experts to undertake urgent needs assessments if required.

ECHO has a regional office in Managua as well as offices in Bogota and Quito. The Monitoring and Information Centre is further assessing the situation and the Commission stands ready to provide immediate assistance and coordinate European efforts should that be required".

ECHO is the name of EC's humanitarian aid department.

Source:sofiaecho.com/