In 2010, a magnitude-8.8 quake and ensuing tsunami in south-central Chile killed more than 500 people, destroyed 220,000 homes and washed away docks, riverfronts and seaside resorts.
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The quake, which struck at 7:54 pm, hit at a depth of eight kilometres, USGS said. If you are traveling, or live, in any of those areas use caution, get far away from the beaches and ocean and as high up as you can get.
Data released by the tsunami center showed that at 3:47 a.m. a buoy near Hilo measured a 2.3-foot tsunami wave, lasting 16 minutes.
A tsunami warning was last issued for Hawaii in 2012, after a powerful quake off the coast of Canada.
An Interior Ministry official says a million people were forced out of their homes, and electrical power was cut off to about a quarter of a million.
There were no immediate reports on any injuries or damage, but communications were disrupted.
Chile’s National Emergency Office (Onemi) has issued a red alert tsunami warning and evacuated coastal areas after the country was rocked by an 8.4 magnitude natural disaster . Illapel mayor Denis Cortes told a local television station that a woman had been killed in the city but declined to give any details.
Waves between 6 and 15 feet high rolled into Chile’s coastal cities following the quake, though tsunami warnings have since been lifted.
State copper miner Codelco said that it had evacuated workers from its Ventanas smelter but all its other divisions were operating normally.
A Tsunami Advisory for Hawaii was canceled Thursday after officials said wave levels dropped enough that conditions would not be a threat to the state.
Two-meter waves also struck the tourist port of Valparaiso, according to the Chilean navy, flattening several beachfront restaurants.
“We went out in the street when we felt it was going on too long”, he said.
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Compounding matters, the Chilean navy’s catastrophe-alert system failed to warn the population of impending tsunamis, leaving hundreds who survived the initial quake to be engulfed by massive waves that followed.
