Chile prepared for earthquake, but lapsed on tsunami

Damage in Concepción (Juan Eduardo Doñoso / http://www.flickr.com/photos/jotequila/)

An early lesson from the Chile quake: earthquake preparedness does not equal tsunami readiness. As one Chilean official put it, a “tsunami culture” and awareness of sea-borne risks is also important.

As the death toll in Chile climbs above 700 and the devastation around second-city Concepción reveals its dimensions, questions are being asked about whether Chile’s government and society could have done more to brace for tsunamis.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet played down tsunami fears in the immediate aftermath of the quake, but unfortunately many of the dead turned out to be in coastal towns that were hit by giant post-quake waves.

The Folha de São Paulo newspaper in Brazil carried a BBC Americas article quoting the head of Chile’s emergency management agency, Carmen Fernández, making this point:

“Because of our history, we have a culture of earthquakes and because of that we’re often holding simulations in various parts of the country, but after what has happened, we have to recognize that we’re lacking a tsunami culture.”

The BBC Americas article detailed devastation in the sea town of Iloca, where waves shattered stores and homes, and incongruously dumped a railroad car in the middle of town, where now transport was mainly via canoe. A mea culpa from Chile’s defense minister on the failure to issue an immediate tsunami warning, was also on the AP wire yesterday:

Chile’s defense minister said Sunday that the navy made a mistake by not immediately issuing a tsunami warning after a mammoth earthquake, a step that could have helped coastal villagers flee to higher ground sooner.

Francisco Vidal said, however, that an alarm was later sounded by port captains. He said that saved hundreds if not thousands of lives.

Clearly, the lesson here is that countries and cities in seismic areas near coastlines need to prepare for the danger of tsunami waves immediately following an earthquake. Although the new tsunami warning system seems to have worked well for the cross-Pacific waves, it appears a hole remains in coordinating a response to waves that can strike coastlines within minutes of a quake.