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!”
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.
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.
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."
CONCEPCION, Chile — Chile's president sent the army to help police attack looting on Sunday and appealed for international help in the wake of an earthquake that shattered cities and killed at least 708 people.
President Michelle Bachelet announced the sharply higher new death toll after a six-hour meeting with aides and emergency officials struggling to cope with one of the most powerful earthquakes in centuries.
"We face a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" for Chile to recover, Bachelet told a news conference at the presidential palace, which itself suffered minor cracks in Saturday's magnitude-8.8 quake.
She said that a growing number of people were listed as missing and she signed a decree giving the military control over security in the province of Concepcion, where looters have pillaged supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies and banks.
The president, who leaves office on March 11, also said the country would accept some of the offers of aid that have poured in from around the world.
She said the country needs field hospitals and temporary bridges, water purification plants and damage assessment experts — as well as rescuers to help relieve workers who have been laboring frantically for more than a day.
Officials earlier had said about 300 were known dead, with 500,000 homes severely damaged.
A tsunami caused by the quake that swept across the Pacific killed several people on a Chilean island and devastated other coastal communities near the epicenter, but caused little damage in other countries, after precautionary evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people. The tsunami warning was lifted a day after the earthquake.
Police said more than 100 people died in Concepcion, the largest city near the epicenter with more than 200,000 people. The university was among the buildings that caught fire around the city as gas and power lines snapped. Many streets were littered with rubble from edifices and inmates escaped from a nearby prison.
Police used water cannon and tear gas to scatter people who forced open the doors of the Lider supermarket in Concepcion, hauling away everything from diapers to dehydrated milk to a kitchen stove.
Across the Bio Bio River in San Pedro, others cleared out a shopping mall. A video store was set ablaze, two automatic teller machines were broken open, a bank was robbed and a supermarket emptied, its floor littered with mashed plums, scattered dog food and smashed liquor bottles.
The largest building damaged in Concepcion was a newly opened 15-story apartment that toppled backward, trapping an estimated 60 people inside apartments where the floors suddenly became vertical and the contents of every room slammed down onto rear walls.
"It fell at the moment the earthquake began," said 4th Lt. Juan Schulmeyer of Concepcion's 7th Firefighter Company, pointing to where the foundation collapsed. A full 24 hours later, only 16 people had been pulled out alive, and six bodies had been recovered.
Rescuers heard a woman call out at 11 p.m. Saturday from what seemed like the 6th floor, but hours later they were making slow progress in reaching her. Rescuers were working with two power saws and an electric hammer on a generator, but their supply of gas was running out and it was taking them a frustrating hour and a half to cut each hole through the concrete.
"It's very difficult working in the dark with aftershocks, and inside it's complicated. The apartments are totally destroyed. You have to work with great caution," said Paulo Klein, who was leading a group of rescue specialists from Puerto Montt. They flew in on an air force plane with just the equipment they could carry. Heavy equipment was coming later along with 12 other rescuers.
The quake tore apart houses, bridges and highways, and Chileans near the epicenter were thrown from their beds by the force of the mega-quake, which was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east.
The full extent of damage remained unclear. Ninety aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater shuddered across the disaster prone Andean nation within 24 hours of the initial quake. One was nearly as powerful as Haiti's devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
In the village of Reumen, a tractor trailer slammed into a dangling pedestrian overpass and 40 tons of concrete and steel crunched the truck, covering Chile's main highway with smashed grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers — one of several overpasses toppled along the highway.
Truck driver Jaime Musso, 53, thought his truck was being buffeted by strong winds and by the time he saw the overpass hanging down over Highway 5 there was no chance of stopping, so he aimed for the spot where he thought he would cause the least damage and brought down the overpass onto his truck. He said he survived "by millimeters."
As night fell Saturday, about a dozen men and children sat around a bonfire in the remains of their homes in Curico, a town 122 miles (196 kilometers) south of the capital, Santiago.
"We were sleeping when we felt the quake, very strongly. I got up and went out the door. When I looked back my bed was covered in rubble," said survivor Claudio Palma.
In the capital Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) to the northeast of the epicenter, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars.
Santiago's damaged airport managed to receive five flights on Sunday, though no outbound flights were possible. The subway also partially reopened.
Chile's main seaport, in Valparaiso, was closed while damage was assessed. Two oil refineries shut down. The state-run Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, halted work at two of its mines, but said it expected them to resume operations quickly.
The jolt set off a tsunami that swamped San Juan Bautista village on Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile, killing at least five people and leaving 11 missing, said Guillermo de la Masa, head of the government emergency bureau for the Valparaiso region.
On the mainland, several huge waves inundated part of the major port city of Talcahuano, near hard-hit Concepcion. A large boat was swept more than a block inland.
State television showed scenes of devastation in coastal towns, where houses were blasted away by water, leaving scraps of wood and metal — and complaints of homeless quake victims that officials had not yet brought water or food.
The surge of water raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga, but the tsunami waves proved small and did little damage as they reached as far as Japan.
Robert Williams, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey, said the Chilean quake was hundreds of times more powerful than Haiti's magnitude-7 quake, though it was deeper and cost far fewer lives.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and made 2 million homeless. Saturday's quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.
Associated Press writers Roberto Candia in Talca, Chile, Eva Vergara in Curico, Chile, and Eduardo Gallardo in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.
SANTIAGO — Widespread looting has broken out in Chile’s second-largest city a day after a devastating 8.8 magnitude earthquake.
Television images showed people running from supermarkets in Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city and an industrial hub, carrying diapers and powdered milk. In other places, young men carried out armloads of cigarette cartons. People were also loading up pick-up trucks with clothing and in some cases smaller appliances from department stores.
One piece of video footage showed police shooting tear gas into a supermarket, dispersing looters fleeing with food and other basic necessities.
President Michelle Bachelet earlier met with officials at Onemi, the country’s National Emergency Office, which was created to coordinate relief and recovery efforts following natural disasters in the earthquake-prone country. She left the meeting without making any public comment.
Concepcion, with roughly a million residents, is 70 kilometers from the epicenter. It suffered considerable destruction. Aftershocks from Saturday’s quake have continued to rattle the country.
Officials are expected to make a public address later Sunday.
People hoping to buy things in areas that haven’t been hit with looting may be out of luck if they’re running short on cash. Automatic teller machines aren’t yet operative. Telecommunications and Internet service also remains spotty.
In Santiago, the capital, people are lining up to buy food at upscale supermarkets. Sunday newspapers had gone to print, with advertisements listing which supermarkets would be open.
By Jeff Fick and Carolina Pica
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.
Maria Cuevas, Consul General of Chile in Vancouver, is urging the city’s Chilean community to be patient in trying to reach family and friends in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
“The situation in Chile is very delicate, and of course it’s a big disaster and we don’t know the extent of the damage yet,” she said Saturday.
The consulate fielded calls all day from people anxious to hear from loved ones in Chile.
An estimated 15,000 Chilean-Canadians live in B.C. and Alberta, and the consulate is suggesting that people try to reach family and friends through email or social networking sites such as Facebook, as phone lines are still down in quake-affected areas.
Cuevas was also in touch with the Chilean Olympic team Saturday as they prepared to return home as soon as possible.
Luis Alberto Santa Cruz, president of the Chilean Ski Federation, who is with the country’s small Olympic delegation, said the athletes’ have all heard from their families, who fortunately survived.
“Of course, we’ve been very affected by what’s happened in Chile, there’s a lot of destruction,” said Santa Cruz.
Alpine skier Noelle Barahona, 19, is one of three Chilean skiers at the Games. She will stay on for the closing ceremonies Sunday, along with Santa Cruz and two other members of the Chilean Olympic team.
The nation’s two other Olympians, Jorge Landru and Maui Gayme, have already left Vancouver, having completed their races. Landru was in Seattle and Gayme in France when the earthquake struck their native country.
Aid agencies surveyed the damage in Chile Saturday after a deadly earthquake shattered parts of the country in the worst disaster to hit the area in 50 years.
"In the downtown, the oldest part of the city, houses just collapsed, there was a wall that destroyed a row of cars, said a weary Paula Saez, an aid worker for World Vision Canada, as she described the situation in Santiago.
While she worked to help assess the damage, she said people in Concepcion, the epicentre of the quake, were unreachable.
The Chilean government declared a state of catastrophe following the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake, which sent tsunami warnings from coastal areas of British Columbia to countries in the Asian-Pacific region. The quake has killed at least 214 people, authorities said.
But some officials have said the country will not see a repeat of the dire aftermath that Haiti experienced last month after its earthquake.
"We're certainly not facing the same kind of magnitude of disaster as we were in Haiti," said Jean-Pierre Taschereau, Senior Manager, Emergency Response, International Operations, with the Canadian Red Cross.
Taschereau said as far as he knows, the (Chilean) government has not requested international assistance yet.
"We still have plenty of people we can deploy regionally to support the efforts in Chile if necessary," he said.
Across the country, Chilean-Canadians frantically tried to contact friends and family in the country on Saturday.
There are an estimated 40,000 Canadians of Chilean descent living across Canada.
"It's a lot of collapsed buildings, lot of bridges, most of them fairly new and they all just came down like paper," said Jose Astorga, president of the Winnipeg Chilean Association, whose members have been able to contact some family in Chile, but have not been able to account for all their relatives.
In Montreal, the vice-president of the Quebec Chilean Association, Ledda Urbani, said her organization has opened its doors to community members desperate for information.
"We have many, many people calling, calling, calling. But there's no communication by telephone," said Urbani.
Urbani said Chilean news is blaring from the centre's television, and computers have been set up so people can try to contact relatives. So far, email and social networking sites have been the best way to contact people.
Urbani used the Internet to reach her extended family early Saturday.
"Nobody is sleeping since this happened," she said. "Some don't have electricity. It's terrible," she added.
Vince Rozas, 27, of Toronto also learned through social networking sites that family on his mother's side in Santiago were all safe.
"I can't believe Facebook has been so useful," he said. "All of my cousins have been on Facebook. That's how we've gotten our news."
Rozas' brother-in-law told him they were woken up by the massive quake.
"He said it was really violent, it felt really rough," he said.
Members of the Chilean Olympic team were feeling for their countrymen on Saturday.
The Chef de mission Luis Alberto Santa Cruz said all three members of the team and their families are doing well.
"I heard about this late last night right after the earthquake took place, and I was able to get in contact with them," he said. "Telephones are not working now, but I've been in contact with mail and messenger and they're all fine."
The team's single athlete, alpine skier Noelle Barahona, had planned to fly out of Vancouver airport Saturday morning but was turned away.
Officials tried to establish communications with Canadians who may be in the affected zone.
"Canadian officials in Santiago and Ottawa are currently assessing the situation to clarify the extent of the damage as well as to determine the potential impact on Canadians who are currently in Chile," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a written statement.
There are some 1,100 Canadians registered as being in Chile, said Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.
But the earthquake has devastated phone services in the South American country, he said.
"Communications are extremely sporadic," Cannon said in an impromptu teleconference.
Cannon said Canada has stockpiles of emergency supplies that it could provide to non-governmental aid organizations in Chile, should the government there issue a request for help.
However, the minister ruled out sending Canada's military disaster assistance response team, commonly referred to as the DART team.
Harper extended sympathies to those affected by the quake.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Chile as they respond to this emerging natural disaster," he said.
A big concern in the aftermath of the quake was the question of what kind of damage could be caused by tsunamis, which are often created by underground tremors.
A tsunami that swamped San Juan Bautista village on Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile, killing at least five people and leaving 11 missing, Chilean officials said.
It then raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga and prompting warnings across all 53 nations ringing the vast ocean, including Canada.
Tsunami waves washed across Hawaii, where little damage was reported.
An advisory issued for British Columbia was cancelled late Saturday and little activity was observed, said Steve Bachop, a spokesman for B.C.'s Provincial Emergency Program.
"Vancouver Island certainly didn't sink," Bachop said in a phone interview. "We did see a little increased activity or wave height...but for the most part it looks like a fairly minor event by the time these waves reached the West Coast."
The tsunami advisory couldn't keep dozens of local residents and tourists out of the water and off a beach near Tofino, B.C., Saturday afternoon.
RCMP Const. Rochelle Carr said she counted as many as 50 people on Chesterman Beach - despite a recommendation to stay out of the water because of the possibility of strong currents.
At one point, Carr said she warned two surfers about entering the water.
"I advised them of the advisory and they didn't seem to care," said Carr. "I think it's a little but irresponsible."
She said the surfers weren't only putting themselves in danger. She said they were putting any potential rescuers in danger, too.
Carr said she saw others set up chairs to watch the water.
Doris McLachlan, a West Vancouver resident who owns property in Tofino, said she wasn't worried about the advisory because nothing had hit Hawaii by the time she was on the beach.
So McLachlan said she decided to take her dog, Tia, for a walk.
"We decided just to stay here and watch the waves," she added.
The third placer of season 5 of the popular competition show American Idol was in Vina del Mar, Chile representing the United States for the city’s annual Festival Internacional de la Cancion de Vina del Mar, Latin America’s largest music festival. He sang Rock Around the Clock.
Hours after he performed a Twitter message came from the entertainer saying that a huge earthquake just hit Chile. “I swear I thought this was the end of my life!!!!!” He said that power was cut and together with his crew, went outside of their hotel wrapped in blankets. Yamin was staying at a sixth floor room. Three minutes later, the ground was shaking again.
The airport in Santiago, the capital, was closed after a tarmac was reduced into rubbles. Yamin was hoping to fly home Sunday as he is running out of insulin. He is a type 1 diabetic.
One of his twitter messages said that they experienced around 30 aftershocks while on their way to the next nearest airport.
Yamin‘s twitter messages were used and monitored by CNN on its coverage of the earthquake.
LONDON — British charities were preparing Saturday to send specialists to Chile after an earthquake which left more than 200 people dead, as Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain stood ready to help.
Oxfam said it would dispatch a five-strong team from Colombia of water engineers, logistics specialists and its humanitarian coordinator for Latin America in response to the massive 8.8-magnitude quake.
The charity has teams operating in Haiti, which is struggling to get back on its feet after an earthquake which devastated the capital Port-au-Prince on January 12.
Jeremy Loveless, Oxfam's Deputy Humanitarian Director, said: "Chile is a developed country with a very capable government and while it is unlikely that this disaster will be as severe as what we saw last month in Haiti, we want to be in place to help as soon as possible."
Save the Children said it was assessing the situation and ShelterBox, which sends emergency tents into disaster zones, said it would send staff to Chile.
Brown said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Chile.
"The people of Chile are in agony today but Britain stands ready to help. We will do whatever we can."
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "shocked and saddened" by the news of the second major earthquake to hit the Americas in as many months following the Haiti quake.
"I send my deepest sympathy to all those affected," he said in a statement, and echoed Brown's pledge of support for the Chilean people.
Miliband said he had no information yet of any British casualties, but he added that the efforts of British embassy staff in Santiago to trace British nationals was being hampered by "significant communications difficulties".
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.
A surge of water generated by Chile’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake rushed onto the shores of the Central Coast Saturday afternoon, drawing many onlookers but no damage reports.
In Morro Bay’s harbor — shielded by the long sand spit and jetties — a small surge of seemed to arrive about 3:30 p.m., tipping buoys to where they faced the shore before being righted upward.
The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center had estimated that the surge would reach Port San Luis at 12:35 p.m.
The tsunami-driven surge added to higher surf from the weekend storm, said John Lindsey — a media relations representative with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Central Coast weather expert and columnist.
A high-surf advisory remains in effect until 9 p.m. today, according to the National Weather Service.
Lindsey likened it to the cycle of high and low tides — usually a six-hour process of waters rising, and then receding — being compressed into a short period.
“You’re talking about something that takes six hours, and then you have this contracting the water within 20 or 30 minutes,” he said. “So the current would be much stronger.”
The quake prompted Warning Center to issue a tsunami advisory. Though devastating waves were not expected, people were advised to stay away from California beaches as a precaution.
Senior Chief Kirk McKay of the U.S. Coast Guard station in Morro Bay said that people should not venture onto beaches or marinas during these conditons.
“An advisory is to keep people away from beaches and marinas because there could be strong surges,” he said. An advisory means a tsunami is possible. Forecasters warned there may be strong currents, but did not expect widespread inundation or damage to occur.
The Warning Center dvised that its effects could last for hours after the surge’s arrival, and the initial wave is not necessary the largest.
Diana Henderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said an advisory is issued when waves are expected to increase in height by less than a meter.
The next and highest risk level, a warning, would be issued if a tsunami were imminent, and calls for more precautionary measures such as evacuations.
Nonetheless, Pismo Beach city officials cordoned off the pier and cleared eople from beaches late Saturday morning. In Santa Cruz harbor, its dredge dragged its anchor and the pipe that pumps sand out of the harbor bottom had coiled up on itself.
The Harbor Patrol there repositioned the dredge so it would not get damaged, and a boat hoist was knocked loose, officials there said.
Like Port San Luis, Santa Cruz is a south-facing shore so there was more potential for damage because the tsunami’s energy was coming northward, Henderson said.
There have been six tsunamis large enough to cause significant damage along the coast of California over the past 200 years, according to Gary Griggs, a Santa Cruz Sentinel columnist and director of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Long Marine Laboratory at UC Santa Cruz.
Crescent City on the California’s northernmost coast, was hit hard by a tsunami from the magnitude 9.2 Alaskan earthquake of 1964.
Water levels rose 8 feet, and much of the low-lying downtown area was inundated as waves washed 2,000 feet inland, drowning 11 people and destroying 150 businesses, according to Griggs.
WASHINGTON — A US group that harnesses mobile phone technology to raise money for charities on Saturday launched text message campaigns to raise money for victims of the powerful quake in Chile.
By texting the word "Chile" to a five-digit number, Americans and Canadians can make micro-donations of five or 10 dollars to non-profit groups including Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army or World Vision to help Chileans recover from the 8.8-magnitude quake that rattled their country early Saturday.
"One-hundred percent of your donation goes to the recipient charity, and the donation appears as a charge on your carrier bill," Ginny Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Mobile Giving Foundation, which is coordinating the aid drive, said.
A similar text-messages-for-aid program set up by Mobile Giving after the devastating earthquake in Haiti last month has so far raised 41 million dollars, Edwards told AFP.
A huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile in the early hours of Saturday, killing at least 214 people, leaving a trail of twisted buildings and sending tsunami waves roaring at jetspeed across the vast Pacific Ocean.
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)
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.
The updated news on Hawaii comes that the region is under a threat of tsunami after the massive earthquake of 8.8 magnitude hit Chile today morning. A tsunami alert has been sent at around 12:45PM emphasizing on huge tidal waves that could affect the islands heavily.
Sources like MSNBC and Hawaii News etc report that the Pacific Tsunami Cautionary Centre has warned the Hawaii islands that a tsunami may affect the coastlines of the islands. It is the highest alert level that is sent to Hawaii and it is declared that alarms will be rung when if high waves are predicted to hit the regions within three hours.
It is also reported by the Ewa Beach tsunami centre that tsunami might come at around 11:19AM on Saturday 27th February 2010.
Tsunami alerts have also been warned in regions of the Pacific islands, Russia, Philippines, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and South America.
Charles McCreery, the director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, has said that there has to be various things to do within the time left. He assures to take care of all to keep them safe from the evacuation zones. He is not sure of the height of the waves but sure that they would be the largest ever since 1964.
However, the tsunami would take about 14.5hours to reach the Hawaii Island since the earthquake hits. So, there would be enough time to take the precautionary measures.
Still, it is advised to all to be inside their residents and follow the warnings to avoid the worst.
Hours after a devastating earthquake killed at least 122 people in Chile on Saturday, a massive tsunami hit the Robinson Crusoe island of the Latin American country, President Michelle Bachelet said.
The three-meter wave hit the island, the largest in the Chilean Juan Fernandez archipelago, and was heading toward Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean where evacuations to higher ground were underway.
"A village on the island is half-flooded, people have been evacuated to higher elevations," the president said, adding there had been extreme damage from the tsunami.
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit the country at 3.34 a.m. (1204 IST), some 89 km to the north of Chile's second largest city Concepcion.
President Bachelet rushed to the national disaster centre to assess the situation and help in relief efforts.
The tremor also damaged buildings in Santiago, about 320 km north of the epicentre, besides disrupting telephone and power lines in some areas.
Several aftershocks, including one that measured 6.9 on the Richter scale, followed the initial quake.
Chilean state television said the president was expected to arrive in the quake-hit area. Areas near the stricken Biobio Region, Maule and Araucania, were declared a zone of catastrophe.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre has issued a warning along the coast of Chile and Peru, and issued a tsunami watch for Colombia, Ecuador, Antarctica, Panama and Costa Rica.
Some 50 nations have been placed under a tsunami advisory. Areas of concern are the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia, Australia, and Japan.
Russia's far eastern region was also advised, but local emergency authorities have said that the region is in no danger.
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.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told a pool reporter that, "We are closely monitoring the situation, including the potential for a tsunami. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Chile, and we stand ready to help in this hour of need."
Chile was rocked by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake earlier this morning.
President Michelle Bachelet said there were more than 85 deaths just in the Maule region at the quake's epicenter, and that more were possible, according to Reuters.
President Obama is in Chevy Chase this morning watching daughter Sasha's basketball game.
In Pictures: Early images from earthquake in Chile
