“We are grateful to report that all missionaries in the area near the natural disaster in Chile are accounted for and safe”, said Eric Hawkins, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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President Michelle Bachelet appeared on television late Wednesday to address the nation about the quake, which occurred just before 8 p.m. local time. People began to return, but Chilean authorities said more than 600 people were still in shelters and nearly 100,000 still without power.
According to Randy Baldwin of the U.S. Geological Survey, Chile’s coast is prone to earthquakes, and the country has a long history of large quakes. The navy said the northern port city of Coquimbo had been hit by waves as tall as 15 feet, and fishing vessels washed up onto the streets.
The University offers a program through GW in Santiago where students take classes at the University of Chile.
15-foot waves struck portions of the coast of Chile, causing as many as a million people to flee their coastal homes, as the tsunami destroyed or damaged dozens of beachfront homes.
The quake, which struck at 7:54 pm, hit at a depth of eight kilometres, USGS said.
Hours later, the warning was lifted.
The quake’s epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean, about 30 miles west of the small, mountain city of Illapel.
There are no other tsunami advisories in effect for the USA mainland.
The US government’s National Tsunami Warning Center (NTWC) also issued a tsunami advisory for Southern California, including coastal areas of the counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego.
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The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management in New Zealand issued a tsunami warning for East Cape, Chatham Islands, Coromandel and Banks Peninsula. “People have to know what happens in an aftershock, what to do, what not to do, how to try and keep calm amid the anxiety it causes”, said Bachelet, according to remarks reported by Cooperativa radio.
