Looting Chile News Reveals Earthquake Chaos

By: John Lester
03/17/2010 12:02 PM ET

Residents who live in Concepcion, Chile, are looting for food and water. The town is in chaos as the death toll rises from the Chile earthquake. Several buildings have crumbled to the ground and residents are still waiting for aid.

“The situation has been chaotic from the start. We have tried to protect whatever we could,” police officer Jorge Cordova said in a statement. “We had to free prisoners in Constitucion… they had not been sentenced to death.”

Crowds of people in Chile bypassed police and raided a supermarket. Authorities did not act against the looters. Young people and seniors alike left the supermarket with their hands full of food, drink, diapers and even some electric appliances. Police just wanted to make sure they left in an orderly way.

There are 2 million homes damaged in the region, including 500,000 with serious damage, and despair was growing. Thousands of locals living in the mountains were among the most visible results of the disaster. A tsunami ravaged the nearby island of Orrego even as the local population was celebrating a holiday. There, the rubble of former homes had been taken away by the sea.

2010 Earthquake Disaster

The 2010 Chile earthquake occurred off the coast of the Maule Region of Chile last Saturday. It hit at 3:34 a.m. local time. It was rated a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale and lasting for about three minutes.

It was the strongest earthquake affecting Chile since the magnitude 9.5 hit in 1960. It is the strongest earthquake worldwide since the 2004 Indian Ocean quake. It is the seventh strongest earthquake ever recorded.

Tremors were felt in many Argentine cities, including Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Mendoza and La Rioja. Tremors were felt as far north as the city of Ica in southern Peru. Tsunami warnings were issued in 53 countries, and a tsunami was recorded, with amplitude of up to 8 feet high.

State Of Catastrophe

Chile President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe.” She also confirmed the deaths of at least 300 people. Many more have been reported missing.

The epicenter of the earthquake was offshore approximately 5 miles. It happened just northeast of Chile’s second largest city, Concepcion. The earthquake also caused waves to occur in Lake Pontchartrain to the north of New Orleans, United States, located nearly 4,700 miles from the epicenter.

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