Page 39 - Tsunami Wave News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Why they are observing today's call by the military to once again head to high ground. a tsunami wave could be on the way, ali. >> all right, let's bring in our severe weather expert, chad myers standing by at the severe weather center, what do you know about this? >> a very severe aftershock, we call it an aftershock simply because there was a large earthquake in general, the 6.0, or the 6.2, whatever it is, as the usgs moves its numbers around, could be a significant earthquake in itself. i don't think there's as much of a threat as maybe the local officials are saying here, but that's great...

Fishermen and having had experiencing with a horrible earthquake back in 1960, they ran straight out of their homes and headed for higher ground. they say as they were heading to higher ground members of the navy and they say also firefighters were there with megaphones saying go home. there's no problem. there will be no tsunami wave. they chose not to listen to the authorities, and you can see real damage caused by those waves about an hour after the earthquake was. look down this street. that is the kind of damage. we have got hundreds of yards of fishing nets that have been dragged ashore....

Didn't alert the inhabitants to a system of sirens. i don't know how sophisticated that system is. another thing entirely, the inhabitants here have been telling us, is that members of the navy told them to go back into their houses, that there wouldn't be a tsunami wave. here, luckily, inhabitants say they didn't lose a single member of the community because they trusted their instincts. they headed to higher ground and that, because they know the sea, because they live from the sea, and also because they have that experience of the earthquake back in the 1960s. they say, had they listened to...

Through one of the hardest hit cities. >> reporter: this is one of the main streets in the coastal town of talcahuano. it wasn't just the earthquake that caused a problem, although that did damage some of the houses, but it was hit by a tsunami. two tsunami waves, they say, and that has brought thick sludge down into the streets. inches of the stuff. now take a look at this. this is a sardine boat. the fishermen say that this weighs at least 25 to 30 tons and it was just blown ashore, probably 600 meters from the sea, on a tsunami wave of about two meters they say. it would have been pitch bla...

>> karl, how does this compare to what you saw on the ground in haiti? >> reporter: certainly difficult to compare with haiti. these are two very different earthquakes. the extent of the damage in haiti, as you know, absolutely devastating. here in chile, far less. that said, whenever it's human lives at stake then one life has that impact. what has struck me here, something that we didn't see in haiti, was the fact that this earthquake went hand in hand with a tsunami and make no mistake about it, that has been the number-one cause for the loss of life here. we were at a coastal village today...