“We are grateful to report that all missionaries in the area near the quake in Chile are accounted for and safe”, said Eric Hawkins, spokesman for the church, in a prepared statement.
Residents sent running into the street after a magnitude-8.3 natural disaster sit next to an equestrian statue in the main square of Santiago, Chile, September 16, 2015. Adobe structures were destroyed, and cars were dragged by the quake and subsequent powerful waves that slammed into coastal towns.
The areas close to where the quake hit experienced waves up to 5 meters (16.5 feet) high.
If there is a tsunami, the center estimates that the first wave would arrive about 3 a.m. Thursday.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported the largest wave to impact the main Hawaiian Islands was 3 feet, occurring at 4:06 a.m.in Hilo. Four and a half metre waves battered the coastline.
Wednesday 8:00 p.m. – Five people were killed and one-million people were evacuated Wednesday after an 8.3-magnitude quake shook the coast of Chile, according to the Government of Chile’s Twitter account.
Chile’s ministry of the interior and public security said 20 people have been injured, but phone networks remain down in parts of the country so the full extent of damage and injury is not yet known. He added one million people were forced out of their homes and electrical power was cut off to 240,000 households.
It lasted a nerve-shattering three minutes, swayed buildings in the capital, Santiago, and prompting authorities to issue a tsunami warning for the country’s entire Pacific coast.
In Chile’s inland cities, people slept outside overnight. The epicenter was located offshore near the city of Valparaíso, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). “We went out into the hallway and down the stairs”, Celina Atrave, 65, who lives in a 25-story tower near downtown Buenos Aires, told AFP. Other Argentinian cities including Rosario and Mendoza reported mass evacuations.
In February 2010, an 8.8-magnitude quake off the Chilean coast killed more than 500 people and inflicted an estimated United States dollars 30 billion in damages.