To 1.3 feet up to 7.7 feet. and i want to update our casualty numbers. we are now getting new information that indicates that the president has now confirmed that 47 people 47 people have lost their lives due to this earthquake. paul earl, again, joining me from the usgs, u.s. geological survey. we were talking about the tsunami warning, which had been issued. paul, if you can also explain to me, in light of the fact that i believe this this earthquake struck at 1:34 a.m. eastern time, 3:34 local time. can you explain to me what the certain amount of time passes and, let s say, for example, there is a not an additional wave or aftershock, can you explain, does that in some way ease the burden? does that lighten the load? does that give people some sense of relief that nothing more should come, at least for now?
yes. as i mentioned, having 13 earthquakes since 1970, magnitude 7 or larger, is definitely a reminder of how seismically prone an area is. i personally can t comment on the response plans in chile, but i would imagine they would be more definitely more aware of the threat than in haiti, since in haiti it had been over 200 years since a system size earthquake. as we look at these images that are coming into msnbc, we re looking at a shot now, which clearly appears as though a bridge has collapsed. that clearly does not look like an on or off-ramp. we are looking at debris all oef the ground. however, we are also seeing, paul, that in some areas at least, some of the footage is showing people driving around on roads that look relatively intact. this clearly is.
Social network sites. looking at some now. people were saying on their blogs that it felt like when you re on an airplane and you re going through turbulence, that s what it felt like for them and they re feeling these aftershocks still. they will continue to as we just heard from paul earl from the u.s. geological survey. you can see devastation. this is just one of many bridges that have been severely damaged. buildings all over. if there is some good news to report, it s that this is a country that was prepared for this. building codes in chile are much stronger. the regulations for people who go and put up buildings, they really do take into account the possibility of an earthquake and so these buildings are constructed a lot more strongly and a lot more safely, anticipating this kind of an event. obviously we re talking about an 8.8 quake. it s hard to build anything that will be able to sustain that kind of force and as we can see,
There will be emergency responders acting immediately in a case like this. it s hard to know the conditions of the roads until you re in that situation. the shaking will likely not be as severe as it was in haiti in port-au-prince, but it will be over a more widespread area. so, one of the potential problems is dealing with disaster on this area, that large of an area, although the intensity of the damage may not be as high as it was in haiti. the logistical problems of dealing with such a large area will be challenging. of course, with this earthquake occurring in the middle of the night, we can certainly speculate that obviously less people would be out and about, on the roadways and, therefore, reducing the possibility of that many more casualties had this happened earlier during the day, during, say, rush hour time period. paul?
The warning systems have become so much more sophisticated. folks in hawaii had hours and hours now to prepare for these waves that are approaching and folks in japan and other parts of the pacific rim, they ve had quite a lot of warning as well. yes. they have. and that s one of the great benefits of modern communication is getting this word out on a global scale. the effort to educate the public on what to do and not to panic and behave in a rational way and lives will be saved. paul earl is with the u.s. geological survey. i know you ve been very busy, sir. and we appreciate you talking to us as we continue to watch these live pictures from kgmb in hawaii. it s very easy to see what s going on there in the water. there have been reports and now it s been confirmed by scientists in hawaii that the tsunami triggered by that devastating earthquake in chile