Another Earthquake, Even More Massive

The dust has barely settled from Haiti's earthquake, but today an even more massive earthquake - one of 8.8 magnitude - hit Chile.

Around 9:45 this morning I heard a quick television news comment to the effect that all members of U.S. Embassy Santiago have been accounted for, but I can't find any official confirmation of that yet.

Looking around the embassy website, I see the mission has conscientiously prepared the expatriate American community for emergencies of this very type. Here's some good advice they sent out to citizens ("The Consular Section of the Embassy has developed this site to provide the American community in Chile with useful, accurate information about preparing to confront earthquakes and other disasters") and to embassy employees.

The fact that Chile has a few noticeable earthquakes every year means that people are likely to take that sort of advice seriously, and casualties are likely to be minimal. Here's hoping.

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Update at 10:45 EST:

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is tracking the wave that followed this morning earthquake, and has sent a warning message (here) to the State of Hawaii.

The wave or waves should start hitting Hawaii around 11:19 HST (4:19 PM Eastern Standard Time), and they should be viewable over Honolulu web cams.

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Update at 11:45 EST:

The U.S. Department of State has just put up a 'person finder' for victims of the earthquake.

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Update at 12:15 PM EST):

According to a Tweet from Travel.Gov "There have been no reports of American citizen fatalities or injuries in Chile."