A strong earthquake in the southern end of Chile and Argentina activated for a few hours the tsunami and evacuation alert of coastal areas.
Several people were evacuated for a few hours preventively from the coast of the region of Magallanes, in Chile, for this earthquake 7.5 according to Chilean authorities (7.4 according to the United States Geological Service, USGS).
Also a hundred inhabitants of Puerto Almanza, in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, were evacuated.
The authorities activated the tsunami and evacuation alert for a couple of hours, however, two and a half hours later, discarded the risk of large waves, they raised the alert.
“Preventive evacuation ends. That is, everyone returns and returns to their activities. All sectors must be working in a normal way except for all the economic activities of the coast,” said Juan Carlos Andrade, director in Magallanes of the state Disaster Agency.
Both in Chile and Argentina the regional authorities did not report affected or material damage. In addition, there were no interruption reports of basic services.
For his part, the Minister of the Interior of Chile, Álvaro Elizalde, confirmed that the evacuation was raised in the affected area, but the precautionary state is maintained for now.
“It has been decided to maintain a precautionary state, limiting the evacuation only of the beach and coastal area. The call is to remain attentive to the instructions of the authorities, since the situation is being constantly monitored,” he said.
As confirmed by the director of Senapred, Alicia Cebrián, although the alert has been raised, there is still a threat of a tsunami that, “in accordance with the state of caution, are waves that range from 30 to 90 centimeters.”
“Therefore, there can be no activities on the beach, the transit is going to be maintained by the Costanera, but transit without detention and that will be supervised by Carabineros de Chile, throughout the entire section of Punta Arenas,” said Cebrián.
