COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) -As the northern Chilean city of Copiapo was preparing last week to hold earthquake drills, it was hit by a real-life one: a 6.4-magnitude quake that cut power to thousands and caused structural damage to buildings.
The drills – temporarily suspended – and last week’s tremor in the Andean nation that sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, underscores rising concern a big quake could hit soon after the last severe one fifteen years ago.
“The probability of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake or larger is around 64% this year, and those odds go up as time goes on,” said Sergio Barrientos, director of Chile’s National Seismology Center.
Chile, a long sliver of a country along the Pacific Ocean, sits at the convergence of three tectonic plates and is the site of the strongest earthquake recorded – a magnitude 9.5 in 1960. The Pacific Ring of Fire has regular volcanic activity and earthquakes, with Chileans wearily used to smaller quakes.
“A piece of the roof fell off. In another room the door frames burst, windows broke,” Alessandro Girardelli, a citizen of Copiapo, told Reuters about last week’s quake – a mild one by Chile’s standards.
“The walls in three of our four rooms cracked.”
The planned drills involve students, workers, disaster agencies and the armed forces. They have been organized by Chile’s Senapred disaster agency to prepare communities for large-scale natural disasters around the country, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and forest fires.
“This is mainly to test our plans and actively participate with communities and evaluate the behavior in different areas of the country,” said Roberto Munoz, Senapred’s director for the Atacama region, adding that the suspended Copiapo drill was being rescheduled for September.
The frequency of powerful quakes has led the country to develop strong and internationally renowned building standards that have helped decrease death tolls during major earthquakes. Most of the 525 deaths from the magnitude 8.8 earthquake in 2010 were due to an ensuing tsunami.
Carlos Zuniga, director of the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of Chile’s navy, said the goal after an earthquake is to evaluate the threat levels to the country and give Senapred an evaluation of a tsunami alert within five minutes.
Barrientos from the seismology center said that each quake was a chance to improve the country’s emergency response.
“With every earthquake we learn and we prepare in the best way possible,” he said. “But nature can always surprise us with something, so I never think we’re ever completely prepared.”
(Reporting by Rodrigo Gutierrez; Writing by Alexander Villegas; Editing by Sandra Maler and Adam Jourdan)
