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
The massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile this morning has also caused a lot of stir in the Pacific coastal region as countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Antarctica, Panama, Costa Rica are under Tsunami alert.
Hawaii is also under scanner after “The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center” has placed it under its Tsunami advisory list. The North American Coastal parts of California and Alaska coastal island area from Kodiak to Attu is also under threats according to the Warning Center.
The center already has stated that a Tsunami is already on its way that can destroy a lot of lives along the sea coast and can also cause major destruction all around the area. It is being predicted that the Tsunami can collide with Hawai’s EWA (EH-VAH) beach around 11:19 A.M. in the morning.
The center is looking forward to employ important measure to safeguard Lives and their properties as they have instructed people out there to move from that region and go to a safer zone for their and their family’s protection.
Chile’s Earthquake is the second of the weekend with Japan’s Okinawa region being hit by 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake also in the early hours of Saturday morning.
