A powerful magnitude-8.3 earthquake hit off Chile’s northern coast Wednesday night, causing buildings to sway in the capital of Santiago and prompting authorities to issue a tsunami warning for the Andean nation’s entire coast.
Officials reported one death in a town north of the capital and heavy waves and some flooding in a handful of coastal cities.
The tremor was so strong that people on the other side of the continent, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, reported feeling it.
Four aftershocks above magnitude-6 and other strong shakes rattled the region after the first major tremor since a powerful quake and tsunami killed hundreds in 2010 and leveled part of the city of Concepcion in south-central Chile.
Jorge Medina, a Santiago resident, said he was in an aerobics class when the quake hit.
“People started screaming that everything was shaking,” he said.
Officials ordered people to evacuate low-lying areas along the 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) of Chile’s Pacific shore, from Puerto Aysen in the south to Africa in the north. Fishing boats headed out to sea and cars streamed inland carrying people to higher ground. Santiago’s main airport was evacuated as a precaution.
AP
