A massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck south-central Chile early on Saturday, killing at least 147 people, knocking down buildings and triggering a tsunami.
President Michelle Bachelet said there were 147 confirmed deaths and that more were possible. Telephone and power lines were down, making it difficult to make an early assessment of the damage, but serious damage was reported in two southern cities.
GlobalMedic is deploying down an advance team from its current operational unit active in Haiti. A team from Toronto will be joining the advance team with water purification equipment in order to provide survivors with access to clean drinking water.
The team will be working with ADRA emergency response team in Chile. There is currently an inflatable field hospital unit on standby for deployment.