A deadly 8.8-magnitude on Richter Scale earthquake struck central Chile early Saturday, ripping apart buildings, highways and bridges and leaving a path of smoky rubble across a long swath of this earthquake-tested country before sending waves rumbling across the Pacific Basin.

At least 300 people died, according to local news services that quoted the director of Chile’s emergency management office, and more than 1.5 million people were displaced. The death toll was expected to rise, particularly around Concepción, Chile’s second-largest metropolitan area, which is roughly 70 miles from the quake’s center.

Quake halts refineries, copper mines

Quake  halted production at two oil refineries and two major mines in the world’s top copper supplier, but exports of the metal will not be affected, officials said.

The 8.8-magnitude quake forced state mining company Codelco to halt operations at its El Teniente and Andina mines, and Mining Minister Santiago Gonzalez said it could take two days for production to resume. Other Codelco operations were unaffected.

Japan issues tsunami alert

The Japan Meteorological Agency on  issued a major tsunami alert for its Pacific coast .The tsunami alert is issued for the pacific coast of Aomori, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures in northeast Japan. Waves of up to three meters high are expected in the areas and “everyone near the coast must evacuate to higher ground”, it said.

US group launches text message aid drive for Chile quake

A US group that harnesses mobile phone technology to raise money for charities on Saturday launched text message campaigns to raise money for victims of the powerful quake in Chile.

By texting the word “Chile” to a five-digit number, Americans and Canadians can make micro-donations of five or 10 dollars to non-profit groups including Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army or World Vision to help Chileans recover from the 8.8-magnitude quake that rattled their country early Saturday.

Sources:

New York Times

The Hindu

Reuters

Hindustan Times

AFP

External Links:

2010 Chile Earthquake on Wikipedia

Richter Scale