PHOTOS, PAGE 1

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

While the attention of the US media was focused on whether a tsunami might hit Hawaii, the death toll in Chile from the one that hit there was rising. Saturday morning’s earthquake, centered 22 miles down under the ocean, touched off apparently massive waves in the direction of southern Chile. One report says that 350 have been killed in Constitucion, over 300 miles south of the capital of Santiago.

Chile’s TV5 News also showed near complete devastation in Iloca y Duao. Houses and other buildings were reduced to rubble by a wave or waves which crossed the coast highway into a residential area. There had been a circus set up in town and television images showed lions pacing back and forth deep in water, but apparently safe.

The images coming from the area of the Chilean tsunami seem to resemble those from the Christmas, 2004 Asian tsunami. Satellite images along the southern coast of Chile reveal a generally sparsely populated area with towns and villages right down to the beach areas. In most cases, there does not seem to be much inland population and the topography rises rather sharply, lessening the impact of the tsunami.

The largest building collapse in this earthquake appears to have been in Conception, where a modern, mid-rise building toppled over. Rescuers are looking for 60 or more people who might have been trapped in the building or killed when it fell. The building structure did not, however, collapse inward, for the most part. The bulding simply went over, largely intact with the exception of a break about three or four floors up from the ground. Most buildings in the earthquake zone remained standing, some with very significant damage.

1:43 PM (eastern) 2.28.10

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