Preparation limits damage in Chile from 8.3-magnitude quake

COQUIMBO, Chile — Parts of this port city were a disaster zone Thursday after an 8.3-magnitude quake hit off the coast, killing at least 11 people and likely causing billions in damage. Overturned cars and splintered boats sat mud next to furniture, toppled adobe homes and fishing nets tangled in trees.

The most stunning thing about Wednesday night’s earthquake, however, may be the relatively low amount of havoc caused by such a powerful shake.

While the quake led more than 1 million to evacuate coastal areas and no doubt caused much anxiety, seismologists said Chile’s heavy investment in structural reinforcement of buildings and constant refinement of its tsunami alert system helped prevent what would have been a catastrophe in less-prepared nations.

“Chile has good codes and good compliance, which together have reduced the vulnerabilities of their building stock over the decades,” said Richard Olson, director of Florida International University’s Extreme Events Institute. “I would rather be there in one of their cities than in many other countries in an earthquake.”

Living in one of the world’s most seismically active places, the Andean nation’s 17 million people have little choice but become experts in earthquakes. The strongest earthquake ever recorded happened in Chile: a magnitude-9.5 tremor in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people.

After another major earthquake in 1985, authorities began implementing strict construction codes similar to those used for highly seismic regions in the United States such as California, said Kishor Jaiswal, a civil engineer with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Most buildings in urban areas of Chile are designed to withstand both the vertical forces of gravity and the horizontal jolts that an earthquake inflicts. Building methods in many other developing countries can withstand gravity and wind but have limited resistance against very strong earthquakes.

Wednesday’s quake lasted a nerve-shattering three minutes, swayed buildings in the capital, Santiago, and prompted authorities to issue a tsunami warning for the country’s entire Pacific coast. People sought safety in the streets of inland cities, while others along the shore took to their cars to race to higher ground. Several coastal towns were flooded from small tsunami waves.

The fortified constructions were evident in Coquimbo, a port city that was one of the closest to the epicenter. While adobe houses and some small concrete structures collapsed, the vast majority of buildings were intact.

A small area of the city, which neighbors La Serena, was covered in mud left by inrushing waves. Boats and cars were overturned, and dead fish were mixed in with debris.

People were also more prepared. Residents said they received evacuation orders on their cellphones minutes after the quake hit.