-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com a massive earthquake rocks chile sending tsunami waves a cross the pacific ocean. >> we are monitoring the damage and where and when possible tsunamis will hit. >> here is what we know right now. let's bring you up to speed with the very latest coming into us here at cnn. 147 people were killed in the 8.8 magnitude quake. it struck just 100 kilometers

from chile around 3:30 in the morning when a lot of people were asleep in their beds. dozens of aftershocks have rattled the area, hitting as far away as argentina. right now, let's bring you up to date with the situation on the ground as we know it. there is no power, no water and no telephone services in chile's capital of santiago. the airport is out of commission for at least the next 24 hours. the earthquake trigled tsunami warning all across the pacific ocean. the governor of chile says a massive wave struck hours ago killing at least three people. we saw pictures a short time ago of those aerial shots. hawaii is bracing for a massive tsunami two hours from now. >> we have reporters all over the region, plus our partner network cnn chile is bringing us

the latest video with reporters there. and reaction from the white house and kate bolduan we are expecting to hear from in a short time ago. the chilean government itself says they don't know exactly what they need. we heard from the president, interior minister, the president-elect and the ambassadors. all repeat the same message. chile has suffered a terrible disaster of an enormous scale, but it simply doesn't understand yet the extent of the death and devastation and the help it's going to need. let's go to kate bolduan live at the white house with more on what the president was offering. >> reporter: hi there, yes. president barack obama came out a short time ago to make a relatively brief statement, two cameras on the developing situation. trying to make the point very clear this white house, this administration is watching the situation very closely. listen to a bit of the

president. >> earlier today, a devastating earthquake struck the nation of chile affecting millions of people. this catastrophic event was followed by multiple aftershocks and prompted tsunami warnings across the pacific ocean. earlier today, i was briefed by my national security team on the steps we are taking to protect our own people and to stand with our chilean friends. early indications are hundreds of lives have been lost in chile and the damage is severe. on behalf of the american people, michelle and i send our deepest condolences to the chilean people. >> reporter: president obama went on to say he has reached out to chilean president bachelet saying the united states is ready to assist any way needed, any way we can. the president also making a point, jonathan, to urge citizens, especially in light of the tsunami warnings that are in place for parts of the united states, included, especially hawaii, to head the instructions

of state and local officials. he tried to drive home the point it was important to listen to officials on the ground and listen to instructions they are giving you. this morning we are told by the white house press secretary he was in the situation room being briefed. you see a picture there by top advisors including secretary of state, hillary clinton as well as homeland security secretary janet napolitano keeping the president up to date. you can be sure they are watching this as this continues. >> kate bolduan at the white house, thanks very much. >> thanks, jonathan. at this point in time, let's bring in our cnn senior foreign affairs reporter. give us a sent of what you are seeing coming into you. >> reporter: some of the images coming into the international desk speak volumes of what's going on in chile. for example, let me give you an

idea of the rescue efforts going on right now. this family was trapped in a building. for a moment they thought they were going to lose their lives. they were identified, seen and found. little by little, one by one, here you see a little girl being rescued. then one by one the rest of the members of the family start being rescued this. happened in the city of concepcion only 70 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake. you can imagine how strong the earthquake had to have felt in that part of chile. this is one of the success stories we can talk about after this morning's 8.8 magnitude earthquake. one thing i would like to point out though is president michelle

bachelet an hour ago confirmed there has been a prison that was badly damaged. the problem the at the prison was that some inmates are believabled to have escaped. a situation we also saw in haiti. president bachelet saying there was nothing we could do. we are dealing with an earthquake, a disaster situation. we are going to try to take control of the situation as soon as we can. right now, the priority is rescuing people who are still alive and trapped under the rubble, try to rescue as many people alive as they can. >> indeed, rafael. that is the key thing here. how many people may still be trapped under that rubble. >> exactly. it's difficult to determine. just in santiago alone, there are 5 million people, just to give you an idea. there is absolutely no indication as to how many people remain trapped at this hour. just by the shear number of population, you can get a good

idea. in places like the town of concepcion, about 670,000 people, dozens of believed to still be trapped. we are going to get a better idea how many people have been trapped and the death toll you already mentioned, it stands at 147 right now, 147 people killed as a result of this earthquake. >> rafael, i know you're on top of this story and we'll continue to check in with you at the chile desk. rafael romo, many thanks. aftershocks are rattling chile and scaring those who lived through the quake. eye witnesses are describing the terror on the experience now. listen to them in their own words. >> it was the most terrifying experience because it started and it kept increasing and the intensity kept going up and up and up.

everything was moving. i actually saw thought that the ground was going to swallow the entire car. it was shaking. it shook the car as if nothing. people start coming out to the streets. we also saw some type of lighting in the sky. we thought it was shutting down the electricity. fortunately we did not see any buildings suffer any damage on the exterior. however, many people got hurt inside because things fell on them or got caught with glass that got broken running out of their building. people were in the streets with their kids, their families.

it felt it was never going to end. >> in hawaii, sirens began to ring the alarm at 6:00 a.m. local time. >> and so with respect to how is something -- >> the earthquake struck while the people of hawaii were asleep. that siren will get your attention warning residents who live near the water to get up and start moving to higher ground. the first tsunami waves are expected to hit less than two hours from now. some businesses were crowded with people buying emergency supplies. they are shutting down with schools and parks and harbors. hilo's international airport is expected to be hit hard. it is closed, as well. we are fully on top of this story for you. at this point in time, let's bring in ebony deion at the weather center and bring you more information. cnn is putting all the

information to get you all the attention. >> i want to show you the tsunami waves going through the area. the closest to the epicenter we felt higher wave heights. further out the wave heights decrease. you get the water piling up as it continues to travel, and then once you see that interacting with the topography of the shorelines, that indicates how that area could be impacted. although the water heights is not that high in acapulco it could have been much higher. here is a look at the model. as you can see, the size of the waves over the ocean don't look all that impressive, especially the further out you go as you get out to the coastal areas of australia japan. that could change. of course, as we get into the middle of the pacific ocean around the hawaii area where we have the tsunami warnings in place, they have the base. all that energy could pile up.

the size increases as it gets closer to the shoreline and we get the bigger waves. that could create the damage. as we take a look back in time, we are talking about an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. this is one of the most powerful felt since the 1900s time period. that is why we see it in all of the pacific ocean including japan and asia expecting to feel waves maybe by sunday morning. let's show you a model of how those waves propigate outwards. it lessen, but the water behind it is left very disturbed just like in a bath tub. if the water sloshes back and forth, it takes time for that water to settle back into place.

we'll have to watch out for those islands very closely. around pago pago, the american samoa. we are going to watch those waves continue to move out towards japan into australia. we could certainly see very minimal wave heights, but the impacts can't be determined this early on. around hawaii, those sirens continue to go off and will do so. we are expected to feel those waves in the next few hours. >> we appreciate it. we want to point out that we are just getting some images as you saw there of the disaster, the impact on chilean highways. let's show you these pictures just coming into us. there you have it in that top box on your screen. it's clear this 8.8 magnitude quake took a severe toll on it. the cracks are clear to see. many of the roads are

impossible. these pictures just coming into cnn. we want to bring them to you to build out this picture in chile. >> it's one indication of the problems the government is having finding out the center of the disaster. communication is still difficult. transportation is difficult. the president on down, officials are saying they still do not know exactly how much trouble the people of chile are in as a result of this earthquake. magnitude 8.8. the assumption is it has been bad and now they've got to figure out where the help is needed and get the help there. >> indeed, we will have more breaking news coverage of this chile earthquake, as you would expect. we are going to check on next what's happening on the internet. we have social network sites busy talking about the disaster. client's come in, they're anxious.

scared. they don't know where to begin. so we start to talk about what have they done and what are their goals. and then we plan. it's a very good feeling as an advisor to work with people and help get them to their goals. once people perceive that they can control their destiny then they accomplish unbelievable things. [ male announcer ] we're america's largest financial planning company. meet us today at ameriprise.com. i reached my weight goal thanks to you so i am ready to get back out there. alright. that's great. i want to personally thank you for 100 calorie hearty chicken rotini. well, it's not just me. you're so funny. i like you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

what i'm seeing here in santiago is nothing than what i'm seeing on local stations. the trees are totally destroyed. the air is literally opened, opened up like the movie the same thing. buildings collapsed. it's really a nightmare. the best sci-fi picture, the best sci-fi movie couldn't describe it better. if you saw "2012" almost. >> the death toll, she said -- well, the earth, she said, literally opened. the death toll has risen to 147, according to chilean officials.

runways appear to be operational. santiago lost electricity, basic services including water and communication. roads and bridges across chile have been battered. the second largest city closest to the epicenter has been hit hard. >> as we mentioned, tsunami warnings are in place in almost every pacific nation. in some places the water has already begun coming ashore. for more on that, let's send to jennifer rhodes, the tsunami programming manager at noaa. tell us what you are hearing now. we just said the waves have started to come ashore. build a picture for us. >> yes. we do have tsunami warnings issued. noaa issued tsunami warnings for the majority of the pacific basin.

we are expecting to see inudation in hawaii around 11:00 a.m. pacific time. we have already seen this in chile, peru and other locations around the basin. hawaii has initiated evacuations as well as i just recently heard they are also evacuating people off the beaches in american samoa. in addition to the warnings in the pacific basin, we also have tsunami advisories posted for california, oregon, washington, alaska and the west coast of canada. we are expecting significant -- we are expecting to see very significant currents in the area. very turbulent water in bays and harbors of those locations.

>> the wave generated by this earthquake in the hours immediately following the quake itself were described as moving across the ocean as fast as a jetliner. how would you characterize the waves now from the data you're looking the at and what you're hearing? >> yes. the waves are proilgating across the ocean at the speed of a jetliner, 450 to 6 a miles per hour. as they get nearer to shore in all of these areas, and it's happening at different times around the basin, but as they do get nearer to shore, they encounter shallower and shallower water, so the wave speed slows down, but that causes the water to come press. that's why we see a tsunami come into shore with wave heights that can inundate land. also to note they do come in at a speed of about 35 miles per hour. a very dangerous situation for those that would be on the

beach. i want to point out that a tsunami is a series of waves, it's not just one wave. you can expect multiple waves to occur in a location. the first one not being the largest during event like this. the period of a wave arrival can be five minutes to an hour. that's why it's so important for people in these locations to move to higher ground, get off the beach, and to remain in a safe location until local authorities state that it is safe for you to return to those areas. >> jennifer, you as has the president of the united states, been stressing, both stressing people must listen to their state and local officials at a time like this so they are on top of the latest information. i am wondering if you've got any sense as you speak to your colleagues in hawaii and american samoa how smoothly these evacuations are going? >> i've heard some reports that people are moving out of the

areas. we just want to restate that people need to move. best thing to do is to do this on foot, if you can. don't jam up the highways with cars to get to higher ground. you can get to higher ground relatively quickly and in a safe manner by walking to higher ground. you have the time to do that. also leave the roads open for emergency officials in this type of a situation. >> all right. >> imperative to move to higher ground. >> jennifer rhoades stressing it is imperative to move to higher ground where a tsunami warning is in effect. jennifer is tsunami programming manager at the national oceanic atmospheric association. >> this is concepcion, the largest community closest to the epicenter, about 100 miles away. have a look. we have not seen a great deal of

concepcion. you get a sense of some of the damage there. it's extensive. >> we haven't seen anybody hysteric hysterical. people are concerned. they are worried, but are listening to what the authorities are saying. there are people going to help to some of the places where some of the situations are happening. there's a part of the electric cabling on the floor. we are going to continue moving through concepcion. we are waiting for authorities to give us more information about fatalities and victims.

concepcion already has linked with 1960 earthquake that changed, completely changed the infrastructure of that city. many of the houses went down in that earthquake and they had to be rebuilt. if we compare the construction of the houses, we have a lot of structural even though a lot were rebuilt, we still have many structural problems in the city. >> just a glimpse there of one of the news accounts we are bringing in. we have reporters working the story every way possible and monitoring the news out of chile on cnn chile. our colleagues doing an extraordinary effort to bring us the latest. what we know is this. 147 people are dead after a magnitude 8.8 quake struck chile

in the middle of the night. closest to concepcion, the city we just saw. we still don't know the extent of the damage. the government of chile doesn't know the extent of the damage. every indication is that the country has suffered a severe blow.

these images tell the tale of what chile has endured, shattered buildings, raging fires and a population clearly stunned by the magnitude of the disaster, the 8.8 magnitude quake which struck in the early morning hours of saturday morning. the president of chile declared areas a catastrophe to clear the way for quick supplies of aid. in the united states, president obama says the u.s. is positioning resources in case chile asks for help. countries bordering the pacific are waiting for a tsunami that is rushing across the ocean.

already having come ashore in several places. the damage we say tentatively, not as bad as first feared, but that is a very, very tentative description. have a look at this, the earthquake causing form yus devastation across chile. they are trying to get a sense of how bad it's been. let's get back to the social networking sites. people are putting up news about the damage, missing loved ones. errol barnett is tracking the sites and joins with us more. >> what's new is that google is putting their efforts behind what's taken place right now. if you take a look at google.com, they just added a link. it reads magnitude 8.8 earthquake in chile, help and learn more. we can pull up the page for you. you'll find it just under the search box. when you click there, you'll see it's similar to their efforts that took part in haiti. they are providing information for donations. those looking for missing relatives. so far they tell us more than

2,200 submissions have been sent. also you see this interactive map they created. they plotted locations of the first quake incident and the subsequent aftershocks. we mentioned another group taking part in this. it's called crisis mapping. they were instrumental in doing this after haiti's devastating quake and took part in daily web cam conference calls with the u.s. state department and help connect all the dots popping up online. one of their directors patrick myer tells me what similarities these efforts share. >> we are going to be mapping for the chile platform using the same categories and indicators we did for haiti. these categories and indicators include emergency collapsed structures, aftershocks, medical emergencies, issues having to do with vital lines like power outages, blocked roads and issues having to do with

response, food distribution, as well as water distribution. >> we can't understand the importance of this as power lines are down, meaning communication lines are down. many friends and families of relatives of people in chile are anxious and worried. they have not been able to get in contact. we are also using i-report. we have a newly vetted i-report mobile phone video to show you uploaded from santiago in chile. it's slightly blurried. marco is walking through his devastated apartment hours after the quake struck just as the sun was coming up. you can see the place is structurally standing, but the damage is apparent throughout. cracks in the walls, debris all over the floor. he is not sure if he will stay in this home or try to move somewhere else for the time being. we are also making use of all the social networks, viewers finding me on facebook under errol barnett on cnn. i got a note a short while ago from nicholas castro.

he tells me the city is paralyzed. he says unlike haiti, his sunt is prepared for this. he is confident that they will be able to come out on the other side. at this point i want to remind viewers you can send joyed or images of the quake, some of the aftershocks or if you're around the world experiencing the impending tsunami, send that into cnn i-report at cnn.com. viewers can send me tweets on twitter.com. another thing we are trying to do is establish a looking for loved ones page. i've been tweeting all links to this as well for viewers. a lot of people have questions around the world. you get a sense how massive and widespread of an event this is when you see the interest from just about every continent. we'll continue to track all of these online developments. people doing what they can, using their small bits of technology to connect the dots

and help people around the world. we'll track this to you. >> errol barnett, learning a lot for us, thanks very much. preparing for the worst case. evacuations are across the pacific and pacific area.

hello, everyone. you are watching cnn live coverage of the earthquake in chile. here is what we know right now.

at least 147 people were killed in the 8.8 magnitude quake. it struck just 100 kilometers from concepcion, chile, in the morning when people were asleep in their beds. dozens of aftershocks rattled the area hitting as far away as argentina. right now here is the situation on the ground as we know it. there is no power, no water and no telephone service in chile's capital of santiago. the airport is also out of commission for at least the next 24 hours. the earthquake has triggered tsunami warnings all across the pacific ocean. you're looking at pictures of the scale of the destruction there on the ground in chile. talking about those tsunami warnings. the provincial governor of chile says a massive weave struck hours ago killing at least three people. hawaii is bracing for possible tsunami less than two hours from now.

across the island chain, hawaiians are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. we are talking about two hours from now. in fact 1 1/2 hours from now when the first waves are expected to hit. these people were out before dawn. they are getting their supplies. some businesses are closing now though because of the tsunami warning. schools and parks and harbors, in particular, are closing in hilo which is expected to be, because of the geography of hawaii hard hit when the water comes ashore. they are closing hilo international airport. >> i'm fairly concerned. i just want to be prepared. i don't want to have to be coming to the store here at 10:00 this morning because it's supposed to -- we are supposed to start feeling the impact about 12:00 noon or so. i always try to be prepared. >> i mean, if a tsunami is coming, we have to move. it's not so bad right now, but i

predict this is going to look like black friday any time soon. >> let me correct myself. it's hilo we are talking about here. let's talk about santiago, chile, where all of this began. chile's quarterbacks the 8.8 magnitude quake that set off the tsunami. american student luke mesher was on the line with his parents in iowa when all of this happened. you were up, awake and talking on the phone? >> yeah. actually, i just finished the conversation about 20 minutes prior with my parents, but was still communicating with a couple other friends and the connection dropped. i thought that was strange and the power went out. 30 seconds later the windows and walls were shaking. >> you seem cheerful about it now. what was it like then? what was going through your mind? >> obviously a couple of things. first i really didn't know what was going on. i thought, what is this?

it was pretty evident within a matter of seconds what was going on. i was like, oh, my god, this is an earthquake. i am way up here in an apartment complex. i need to get out of this building as fast as i can. >> what did you do? >> i live with a host family. my host mom and host sister were here the at the time. they were out of their rooms and yelling and they were just paralyzed with fear. i grabbed my head lamp and said, we have to go. we have to go now. we ran out the door. i insisted we just leave right now and start heading down stairs to get outside. i didn't have any shirt on shoes on. obviously, that was the last of my concerns at the moment. >> you had a head lamp. that's amazing you were that prepared. did you trust the elevator at that point? did you jump down the stairs? >> no, no, we did not take the elevator. we went down the stairs, for sure. it was challenging. my host mom is a little bit

older and not so quick. part of me wanted to say, you know what, i'm getting out of here. obviously, i stuck with them and we got down to the bottom and everything was okay. there were immediate aftershocks and plenty of other residents -- this is a big, a 20-story apartment complex which is common here in santiago. that was our main concern not being underneath the 20 stories above me. >> you're back inside now. have things returned to normal around you? >> no. i think it will be a good while before they are close to normal. within my own apartment and the area of the city i live in, they are relatively normal. it's an eery, strange quiet out here right now. a lot of the supermarkets have already closed, actually, for one reason or another. i'm lucky enough to be in an area of the city where we actually do have running water. at the time we have electricity. it's coming on a couple of

times. there definitely are parts of santiago. the downtown area and more historical districts that are still without water. >> we have heard about dozens of aftershocks. have you been feeling them? >> oh, yeah. probably not more than about maybe every 40 minutes or so we'll just feel a slight wobbling. i've been using my glass of water to verify it's not just in my mind. you can see the water actually wobbling back and forth every time it happens. >> do you get a sense authorities there have the situation under control? is help getting out? can you see police and emergency vehicles on the streets? are people around you getting the reassurance they need? >> yeah. i think here in santiago which is a different scenario from more where the epicenter was down in concepcion. i think things are in a much -- from what i can see in the local

news coverage and talking to my host family who have a lot of relatives and friends spread throughout chile, things are in certainly worst shape further south from here and they are not nearly as compared. the streets here are more open and i see emergency vehicles making their way back and forth periodically. >> you were talking to your parents before the earthquake struck. have you had a chance to talk to them since? is there any message you want to send them now? >> thankfully, i did get a chance to briefly connect with them before my skype dropped this morning. they were extremely worried, obviously. just the message is i feel extremely, you know, thankful and lucky to be safe and fine. i hope that everyone else out there can locate who they are looking for. >> you've come through in good shape and good cheer. thanks for talking with us. >> he certainly is in good cheer. good to see that under such difficult circumstances.

carolyn was born in chile and lived there for years before she came to work with us here. great to speak to you to get your insight. i don't know whether you've been able to connect with friends, family to get a sense of what's going on on the ground. what can you tell us? >> actually this morning around 5:00 a.m. i got a beeper with cnnespanol trying to reach my mother and family. they heard me and called me back. up until now, it's very difficult to get in touch with chile. on the other hand, they have been able to call us or call outside of the country. in that sense, my family is all fine. >> i'm pleased to hear that. have they been able to give you a sense of the damage around them, what they are seeing? >> actually, around them, the situation is not that bad. it's like what we are hearing right now. it's some calm. the situation seems to be more

or less under control in santiago. i know concepcion is way worse. talco, another city, they are suffering a lot. those are older cities with very proud construction, but very old, too. a lot of history there. a lot of damage because of that, of course. >> we are getting really a sense santiago has quite an efficient system that kicked into gear. you mentioned concepcion and talco. what is your sense of local officials there and how they are dealing with it at this time knowing chooil as do you? >> i think the whole country, and the people, too, we are born in a country where you feel earthquakes since you are very young. you get emergency drills at school very often. you more or less know what to do, where to look at and where to go if there is a earthquake. of course, not this big of an earthquake. in a situation like this, and

especially during the night, it's very hard for people to react and do the right thing sometimes. i think it's not a lack of from structure or construction towards concepcion or talca, it's a matter of being close to the epicenter and that is what is worse for them. >> glad you were able to make contact with your family in chile. thank you for joining us to give us perspective on the ground. >> our eyes are on chile and across the pacific in hawaii and points in between as the earthquake sets off a tsunami that is still being felt. the water is still washing up and the devastation in chile is still being reckoned with. >> keep it right here at cnn. mom, can i have the fish?

speaking of, what's on friday's menu? friday is fish day. well, maybe it should be tuna helper day. mmmm... fish delish, yes? i'll take it. sold! tuna helper. one tasty meal.

if i can say this i almost peed in my pants.

we lost electricity power. we couldn't see anything, but the tv, the walls, everything was moving everywhere. >> maurice go hernandez who has a way with words who was terrified when it happened. it was one of the biggest quakes ever recorded. let's get perspective on that from jacqui with cnn usa. >> absolutely. 8.8, this is almost as bad as it gets in terms of extreme situations. a few factors which made this a better case scenario than what it could have been. part of that has to do with the fact the main epicenter was offshore and away from the most populated areas. this is our google earth animation. we are going to go down and show you. that was the 8.8 where it hit. that was about three miles away

from shore. as we look across this area, you can see nobody lives here. it is very unpopulated. you can see a couple of houses in the area. here are a few more people in one of the villages. santiago is well up to the north where most of the people live. the damage could have been so much worse. now we are going to take you towards haiti and talk about that one. that was the one that was a 7.0 magnitude. there you can see how close that was to port-au-prince where millions of people live. the dr. frankle here with us. let's talk about some of the differences between these two quakes. this is the one in haiti showing you a good portion of the population in here experienced the worst and the most violent of shaking. while we talk over here about what happened today in chile, there you can see zero people felt the most extreme and most violent. talk about the differences here.

>> port-au-prince is built on this short of delta area, a lot of unconsolidated sand and gravel and loose material. when that starts to shake in a earthquake, the seismic waves get trapped in that area. there are similar sediment at the coast in chile. not many people live there. as you move closer to the andes, you can build more on to bedrock and seismic waves pass through there more easily and there is much less shaking. the other differences is in haiti, the earthquake was very shallow. about 10 kilometers depth so it is much deeper, maybe 35 kilometers, the depth is uncertain at this time, but certainly deeper and offshore, like you said. >> closer to the surface where the quake happens, the more violent shaking you are going to be experiencing. so it wasn't quite as deep from

what happened for today. we'll talk about the tsunami and that threat. that is something way will be dealing with here in hours to come. there have been a number of reports in tsunamis, the worst in chile where almost eight feet of water was reported coming in. where are the areas here we are going to be concerned about in the upcoming hours? >> certainly hawaii is preparing for the tsunami now. noaa estimated 1.5 to 7 feet in terms of the height of wave. it determines on the shape of the coastline how much it will be affected by those waves. >> right. one to seven feet is something people need to take seriously. only a foot or two feet of water could knock you off your feet. >> right. of course, if it's only a couple of feet above sea level at the coastline, it can be a long distance onshore. >> okay. let's talk about aftershocks. there have been dozens and dozens. at least 40 aftershocks we've

seen in this area. how long can we expect these to last and how strong? >> these will go on for days and weeks following the earthquake, but they'll decrease as a function of the time. the magnitude of them will decrease, as well. we should expect maybe ten magnitude 6.0, 100 around 5.0s. >> how significant are the 5.0s and what should people living in these areas do to protect themselves? >> take the normal precautions they would for any earthquake. stay out of brick buildings, things like that. 5.0s are not going to do too much damage. 5.0 is not a terribly big earthquake. they are probably out of real

danger at this point. >> let's talk about historic perception. this is top 10 strongest quake? >> it shouldn't be surprised with this curve here. in 1942 we had a earthquake about this size and in 1960, the largest ever record ed. this segment of the fault did not rupture in those. this was maybe primed and ready to go as a result of those earthquakes and now it has ruptured. >> in the coming hour, hawaii might see the first waves which begin to move in with the tsunami. was it the 1960 quake generated the tsunami, both did, which impacted hawaii. what can you tell us about that? >> went into hilo harbor and destroyed a lot of boats and infrastructure there. they had a large effect on hawaii. they sort of know what to do as

a result of their previous experience. >> we'll be watching it very closely as we get into the upcoming hours and watch for more sea height rises potentially in hawaii. back to you. >> jacqui jeras, thanks so much. there is so much to learn about this and it's all extraordinary stuff. >> absolutely. no doubt about it. you heard from kurt there giving us more perspective historically. let's recap more of what he had to say. we want to bring sow of the worst earthquakes in modern times. just last month you'll remember because you saw the pictures, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck haiti killing at least 222,000 people. that toll continues to rise. the 1976 quake in tangshan, children, killed at least 250,000 people. the initial quake and huge

aftershocks both measured 7.8 on the richter scale. the 2004 tsunami off sumatra killed 228,000 people. more than 87,000 people killed in the 2008 quake of sichuan, china. it caused an estimated $86 billion worth of damage. then in 2005, a massive quake in northern pakistan and india. that killed 79,000 people, and left millions more homeless. when you bear in mind the numbers dead and we are talking 8.8 and right now the death toll 147. >> that is why we are treading so carefully. the number, frankly, seems out of proportion to the damage we've seen and the measurement that scientists have made of the quake that caused all the destruction.

8.8, one of the worst earthquakes ever recorded, and so far casualty figures, dreadful as they are, are still less than 200 compared to the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands we've seen in comparable situations. we are following this story closely. clearly, we haven't gotten to the bottom of what this quake has done.

one witness said simply the earth opened up. we'll bring you the latest developments in our continuing coverage of the earthquake that struck chile. a magnitude 8.8 quake that struck in the middle of the night. at least 147 have been killed. its epicenter off the coast of the center of the country. buildings collapsed, roads and bridges have been destroyed. there have been power and water outages all through the country. the quake triggered a tsunami warning for essentially the entire pacific region including hawaii. just hours ago -- we are going to get more reaction to the story. let's get reaction from chile's olympic athletes who woke up to find out about the devastating quake that struck back home. let's go to mark mckay standing by for us live in vancouver.

what are you hearing? how are they holding up? >> reporter: three representatives here from the games in vancouver, some nations like the united states, norway, some nations sending just one athlete. chile with three of their athletes represented here at the vancouver games. all three are alpine skiers. all finished their competitions so they will not be missing any event. according to the chilean team spokesperson that all three athletes and their coaches are planning to miss sunday's closing ceremony hoping, hoping, trying their best to leave vancouver to get back to their homeland. of course, atia, that's easier said than done. at the moment, the three representative the of chile at the vancouver games are planning on missing sunday's closing ceremony. >> has the ioc put out any statement about this as to any

assistance they are giving them during this difficult time? >> reporter: we do not know the international olympic committee has not officially spoken to this tragedy that continues to unfold in the south american nation. we will be watching from the main press center. as of now, no the ioc has not reacted to today's events. >> how much is this impacting the games, if at all? i would imagine the spectators are still taking in the games. closing ceremony is on sunday. >> reporter: it's a mix of taking in the games and taking in the breaking news. anyone with a connection to chile or any of the surrounding countries certainly keeping tabs on the news coming out of the homeland. stopping by restaurants and any kind of bars that would have televisions on. yes, the games do continue. yes the games are on television. there is a sense also of splitting attention between what's going on here and what's going on in that south american nation, especially for those directly affected. >> mark mckay joining us from vancouver.

we'll continue to monitor any statements coming from the chile olympic squad, three athletes there. all have finished. as mark pointed out, they are all planning to miss sunday's closing ceremony if they can get out of vancouver and head back to chile, where we know the airport is closed at this time. jon? >> we are seeing more of the latest pictures, sense of the devastation and people trying to make their way through the damaged cities. after the 8.8 magnitude quake that struck chile overnight. we know at least 147 people are dead, but the government has been very clear it simply doesn't know the extent of the destruction. it doesn't know the extent of the deaths. it is surveying the situation and it's trying to reach the areas that are still cut off. >> much more about this massive earthquake after the break. i've been an ameriprise financial advisor for 24 years. 23 years. 21 years. i do really love what i do. ♪

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