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Chile: Earthquake - Feb 2010

Disaster description

On 27 Feb 2010, at 03:34 local time, an earthquake of 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale rocked Chile, with its epicenter located 63 kilometers south-east of Cauquenes in the Maule region (406 miles south of the capital Santiago). The earthquake triggered a huge tsunami—one of the largest to hit the country. The tsunami had an impact on eight of Chile's 15 regions, leaving about half the length of the country affected, or 2,000 kilometers of land. This double disaster killed 526 people, affected 1.8 million, destroyed 81,000 houses and severely damaged nearly 372,000. The economic cost was US$30 billion, equivalent to 12.5 per cent of the GDP. (IFRC, 29 Jul 2013)

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