Have heard from my nephew in Santiago . . . being awakened by 8.8 at 3:30a was a bit of a . . . shock!
His building survived intact, except for elevator problems. But the books and pics and "stuff" in his apartment are somewhat the worse for "wear".
He said that the city fared reasonably well, except for the International Terminal of the airport which is kaput. Among other things, the fuel storage tanks tipped over!
[attachment=1797:Santiago.jpg]
Biggest "inconveniences" are the jammed grocery stores and gas stations! This, after a quake 1000 times stronger than Haiti!
He said the closer one gets to the coast and South of the capitol, the far greater the damage and loss of life.
He also noted that Chile experienced at the beginning of the 20th century the most powerful quake ever recorded: 9.9., around the time os San Francisco's "event".
No wonder Santiago is still standing; they have a 100 years of seismic engineering data (and engineers) to make it so.
