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Chile Earthquake

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BradK

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Well, I am watching live CNN streaming at the moment about this earthquake... they are saying it is 1000 times stronger than the Haiti earthquake ... 8.8 on the scale.

They say the Tsunami story might be bigger than the earthquake story.

Prayers go out to Chile.

Brad
 
This could get very, very ugly. If it is as bad as they are suggesting the damage to the capital could be catastrophic. And the fallout from the tsunami would be equally bad.

Australia's East coast is vulnerable as well. Apparently we'll know by Sunday morning.
 
The best we can hope for is that the suffering of all involved is minimal.

Having been through natural disasters much less catastrophic as this, I can only imagine how hard it is.......
 
CNN live streaming taken from ABC website... where can I access live streaming??
 
The following is from the BOM website:

The news report on ABC radio this evening said the earthquake was deep in the ocean and there has been no damage on mainland Chile.

So let's not all anticipate we will drown in our beds overnight.
 
We've had a small tsunami (20cm) hit in my area of NZ and apparently there are bigger ones following. I Don't think it will be a big deal here, but you never know.
 
The slack media is concentrating on Santiago, with some reporting the earthquake was fortunately centred near a sparsely populated part of Chile.

I decided to Google Earth the location and map/pinpoint major population centres MUCH closer to the epicentre than Santiago and notate estimated current populations (the last Census was 2002). There a MANY 100,000's of people in centres very much closer than Santiago, so you would assume many of those centres will be all but destroyed. For instance, Concepcion on the coast is only approx. 160km due S from the epicentre, with a population of "only" approx. 800,000!!

Based on this, I think over the coming weeks the true extent of the total devastation and eventual government guess-timated death toll will be appalling...
 

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An interesting fact about the folly and short term memory of some of the human species when it comes to building cities.


So, the city of Concepcion had been destroyed 6 times between 1570 and 1835. That's once every 44 years!! This makes number 7 (partial destruction).

They are very lucky it has been 175 years since the last wipeout to this one - much longer than the previous average between big quakes.

The chances must be extremely high that another wipeout is due within the next 50 years.

Every time it happens, the cost to the nation to rebuild Concepcion becomes more astronomical and due to the rapid population growth the potential for loss of life is becoming ever greater.

The question is - knowing that another devastating earthquake WILL hit, likely within the next 50 years, why do humans persist in re-building on the same shaky ground?

Could it be purely economic, in that the local building industry thrives with each reconstruction and keeps much of the working population in employment, thus offsetting the initial massive drain on government coffers?

I guess in the end, life is cheap in comparison to the need for employment.


Hmmmm.
 
Aussiejeff said:
The chances must be extremely high that another wipeout is due within the next 50 years.
Click to expand...

That sort of conclusion can't be drawn from your data. You also can't just ignore the relatively peaceful 175 years, so that's an average of every 63 years (7 disasters, apparently one in '39).

Every time it happens, the cost to the nation to rebuild Concepcion becomes more astronomical and due to the rapid population growth the potential for loss of life is becoming ever greater.
Click to expand...

You can't underestimate people's desire to rebuild rather than relocate. You could say the same thing about many people in Australia regarding bushfires, floods etc.
 
Yes, I was Peru, but currently in Melbs. We have some friends down that way, but no one is effected that we know of.
 
It's not going to get any better in Chile is it? The damage to infrastructure in particular roads seems extensive which means that actually sending supplies and resources to many of the smaller towns will be next to impossible.

The insurance fallout could be very big. Chile is relatively wealthy which means expensive homes almost certainly insured. And just because a home hasn't been completely flattened doesn't mean it isn't terminally damaged

And the human suffering will be immense. Let's keep these people in our thoughts.
 

Unfortunately, no - it won't get better in the short or medium term.

As in all these types of catastrophic natural disasters, initial government figures & media reports usually vastly underquote casualties and/or damage. A more accurate extent of total casualties and damage (usually eventually far greater than initial reports indicate, since it takes so much time just to access then assess the worst hit areas) will take at least a couple of weeks to determine IMO.

Total cost to the Chilean government and insurers will take many months.

BTW I loved watching the last Dakar race through the spectacular Chilean landscape. It is really sad to see how they are suffering now.


aj
 
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