PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

CN5 Chile live online TV broadcast at http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/b5849.htm

FLIGHTS ARE STILL SUSPENDED AT THE SANTIAGO AIRPORT: TV5 REPORTS

A tsunami appears to have hit in the area of Iloca and Duao, two towns south of Santiago, Chile Scenes being presented on local television from Chile show massive devastation in an area immediately back from the sea shore. Boats are smashed and lifted in land. Buildings have been reduced to rubble. Cars have been flipped over and filled with water. A circus that had been set up in one of the towns had extensive damage and lions were seen pacing back and forth in cages with half a foot of water underneath them.

The damage from the tsunami, visually, seems a lot like the 2004 tsunami that hit southeast Asia, the difference being that the massive waves apparently did not extend inland very far. This is not a heavily populated area, but much of the housing and commercial sites appear to be right along the shore line.

There were unconfirmed eyewitness accounts in regard to people being swept to see in these two towns, but there was no immediate detail available on the loss of life in this area, nor was information available on whether the tsunami hit other villages or towns in this general area south of Santiago. The housing structures in the area appeared to be of poor construction and many were smashed into rubble by the force of the waves and debris.

11:00 PM, eastern US, 2.27.10

Late video coming in live from Chile indicates that the damage and death from the 8.8 earthquake could be considerably worse than previously reported or imagined. First, there are still pictures of an entire, mid-rise apartment building that toppled over on its side. The building structure did not collapse in on itself, but rather broke into segments about three floors up from the ground, with the rest of the building lying more or less flat on its side. Just imagine what it was like for someone in their bed at 3:30 Saturday morning and finding themselves falling, falling, falling. They would have been injured by the impact with the ground and next by furniture and building parts hitting them. Being in that falling building would have been the stuff of nightmares. (There is no way to know if the building fell immediately,, which is likely, or sometime after the earthquake, giving residents time to flee).

Chili Channel 5 is also showing a number of shots from the air of outlying areas from Santiago. A number of buildings could be seen in a complete or nearly complete collapsed state. As for the rest, it was difficult to know, since the video apparently was shot from a moving, fixed wing aircraft, not a helicopter. Over all, this new video gave the impression of a mjuch wider area of devastation that previously known.

Such scenes could mean that the 200+ dead identified as of nightfall Saturday are far below the reality.

9:34 PM, eastern US, Saturday, 2.27,10

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Chile Television 5 is reporting that the most affected areas of earthquake damage are Talca, Maule and Concepcion.

There is also major damage reported at the airport in  Santiago.

President Obama said in remarks at the White House that there have been “hundreds” killed in the earthquake, which is higher than many official estimates, but not out of line with the damage seen from live and taped video from Chile.

At 8.8, the Chile earthquake is said to be at least 100 times more powerful than the earthquake that hit Haiti. Keep in mind, however, that Haiti had extremely dense population right on top of the fault line and thousands of poorly constructed buildings. So far, the devastation in Chile appears to be far less than in Haiti just over six weeks ago. What’s more, Chile has many more resources available, with other close neighbors who can also send equipment, supplies and medical assistance.

This earthquake is classified as potentially one of the strongest in history, since records began to be kept in 1900. The strength of the earthquake, however, does not correlate directly with likely casualties.

A tsunami set off by a 1960 earthquake in Chile killed more than a hundred people in Hawaii.

The quake was centered 200 miles away from Chile's capital Santiago, which is also Chile’s largest city by population. .

The festival at Vina del Mar has been suspended.

Here is a clip from a Newsweek blog posting on why the earthquake in Chile is not as devastating as the one that hit Haiti:

“...unlike Port-Au-Prince, Chile is accustomed to earthquakes. It has what those who work in disaster-preparedness call “earthquake consciousness”. The country sits at the boundaries of the Pacific and South American tectonic plates, and it experiences an average of one magnitude-8 quake a year. As several media outlets have already noted, the largest earthquake ever recorded, a 9.9 on the richter, occurred in the same region. Globally, quakes of 8.8 or higher are pretty rare. But if there’s any country that would be expecting it, it’s Chile. “

It should be noted that Haiti was a failed state before the earthquake of 1.12.10 hit. The country was subjected to almost 200 years of isolation first put in place by the French in response to the slave rebellion in the 1700s which created an independent state. This isolation was increased by the actions of President Thomas Jefferson in response to fears that the slave rebellion in Haiti might inspire a similar action in the United States.

Haiti has a very small slice of wealthy people who own businesses and factories and occupy high positions in the government and a huge population of poor people who live one step above zero. Many of the deaths in Haiti came in poorly constructed, crowded housing that fell immediately when the earthquake came.

While Chile will have a massive task in cleaning up and rebuilding, it is unlikely to need anything like the international effort now underway in Haiti. Chile has neighbors who can help with rescue and sending in heavy equipment to clean up the rubble. Just about everything in Haiti has to be shipped in by boat or brought in over the land from Santo Domingo, the other half of the island.

Chile will need assistance, but this quake is not likely to call forth the massive international donation and aid effort mounted for Haiti. Further, Chile will likely get a short term economic boost from the clean up and rebuilding effort, even though there will be much sorry in the country from the hundreds killed and the many injured.

Haiti is a place that could barely stand on its own two feet before the earthquake. Afterward, and still six weeks later, it is in intensive care and in need of a long time, major commitment from the developed nations of the world.

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