Thread: Chile quake sparks tsunami, downs buildings

TALCAHUANO, Chile — When the shaking stopped, Marioli Gatica and her extended family huddled in a circle on the floor of their seaside wooden home in this gritty port town, listening to the radio by a lantern's light.

They heard firefighters urging Talcahuano's citizens to stay calm and stay inside. They heard nothing of a tsunami — until it slammed into their house with an unearthly roar about an hour after Saturday's magnitude 8.8 quake.

Gatica's house exploded with water. She and her family were swept below the surface, swirling amid loose ship containers and other massive debris that smashed buildings into oblivion all around them.

MORE: Tsunami Sweeps Away Entire Towns in Chile - The Americas - FOXNews.com

TALCAHUANO, Chile — When the shaking stopped, Marioli Gatica and her extended family huddled in a circle on the floor of their seaside wooden home in this gritty port town, listening to the radio by a lantern's light.

They heard firefighters urging Talcahuano's citizens to stay calm and stay inside. They heard nothing of a tsunami — until it slammed into their house with an unearthly roar about an hour after Saturday's magnitude 8.8 quake.

Gatica's house exploded with water. She and her family were swept below the surface, swirling amid loose ship containers and other massive debris that smashed buildings into oblivion all around them.

MORE: Tsunami Sweeps Away Entire Towns in Chile - The Americas - FOXNews.com

A strong 6.3-magnitude aftershock hit off the Chilean coast Wednesday, triggering new fears in the southern-central town of Concepcion just days after a massive 8.8-magnitude quake devastated the region.

Wednesday's quake was centered about 33 miles north-northwest of Concepcion at a depth of 22 miles, the United States Geological Survey reported.

Emergency officials said there was no risk of a tsunami hitting the area shortly after the aftershock was felt.

While the above report says 'no risk of a tusnami,'on one of the cable outlets, it is being reported that the government of Chile HAS issued a TSUNAMI ALERT . . . so, apparently, details are still "fluid."

Today's strong aftershock was described as a "long, rolling" one.