Canadians were scrambling Saturday to discover the fate of their relatives and friends after a deadly earthquake rocked the country in the early morning, killing more than 100 people, and setting off a tsunami that could affect British Columbia’s coast.
“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.
Canadian officials were also trying Saturday 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.
The Chilean government declared a state of catastrophe following the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake.
There are about 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.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/02/27/chile-quake-canadians027.html#ixzz0gnSZ6Goy
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