tonight. from the fox studios in new york city. good night. god bless everybody. see you next week. ♪ ♪ ♪ this is a fox news alert. the earth shook under the south >>merican nation of chile as one of the world's most powerfulth counties knocked town buildings, split streets, buevered highways. ignite #-d fires and shattered lives, killing hundreds.f then this afternoon, president obama addressed the nation and the oy chilean people. >> i was briefed by the is national security team and thes pasteps we are taking to protect our own people and to stand i with our chilean friends. we have resources positioned to

deploy. chile is a close friend andspas partner of the united states t and i have reached out to the f president to let her know that. we will be there for her should the chilean people need assistance and our hearts go lk out to the families who may on. have lost loved ones. >> geraldo: the fifth most l. powerful earthquake in 100 years also spawned a vastfirste tsunami that raced across the atlantic ocean spreading terror to tahiti, hawaii, before itad, became clear that the wave's energy dissipated before it su. could inflict the kind of damage that killed a quarter h million in the indian ocean six years ago. welcome it our two our special report on the awesomey earthquake that unleashed well, energy 900 times than the 7.0 magnitude quake that sowed sucd

havoc in haiti, but unlike haiti with the lack of buildin, codes, chile was ready for,oo this the 13th major quake to hit there since 1973. still, the long slender nation bid not escape unscathed. difft airports there are closed and there are widespread powero mes outages. the world's largest copper mines and oil refineries., suspended operations and the pan american highway is cut. before we bring you up to the n minute coverage on the extentnw of the disaster, the headline tonight has to be just how hour how ay the world is to have mostly dodged the deadly one-two punch from quake and. wave. with us for as long as we are on the air the science

channel's mechiop.kaku joins jus moments of clarence. you -- what a gigantic earthquake. >> talking about something a greater than a hydrogen bomby f that detonated 20 milese underground, lifting the eartho creating the gigantic tsunamiab willle sail to japan in a few d more hours. to this is strag staggering. >> geraldo: japan already taken off the tsunami warning list. russia and china the only nations that remain. what happened to the tsunami? where did it go? >> it went across the pacific as if it was a pond and in some sense a dress rehearsal for w something that could happen in los angeles, san francisco, >>e tokyo, istanbul. this could be a dress rehearsal for a big one that could hit the united states. >> geraldo: we will get to the

tsunami. back to the earthquake and its epic proportion. 8.8 on the richter scale is a great, a multiple times than the meager 7.0 that caused widespread devastation in haiti. we was this one and i'm in no way downplaying the hundreds of deaths in chile and the slapsed buildings there and the -- and the collapsed buildings and the other devastation i have noted. why didn't this cause the kind of holocaust that the haiti quake did. >> earthquakes do not kill people. it is buildings and corrupt building inspectors that kill people. the chileans had a big one in 1960, the biggest jeff recorded 9.5 back in 1960 so the chileans have had many dress

rehearsals. the haitians, building codes were out the window. >> out the window. buildings that i witnessed myself that squashed so many good people, made of cheap concrete, to much sand, no metal rebar reenforcements. in chile where i experienced the september 1973 quake myself, i was in a high rise hotel in santiago there to cover the coupe against the elected government. the building swayed and we rushed down to the lobby but everything was okay and that earthquake i'm sure measured about the same as the haitian earthquake but preparation and building codes and building inspectors made the difference style magazine to go from 7 to 8 is a factor of 32. to go from 8 to 8.8 is perhaps another factor of 30 or so. so do the math. 32 times 30, 900 times the

energy of the haitian earthquake concentrated in chile. >> geraldo: and the haitian earthquake also, michio, you had a situation in haiti it happened underneath port-au-prince, here between the capital city of santiago. go the distance make a big difference as well? >> it made a difference and we were lucky to some degree bus because the earthquake in haiti was below the surface of a populate the area. here it was not as close to major population centers and so that is the reason why the death toll is not as great perhaps but the main thing is building codes were out the window. >> geraldo: and clearly i would hope that the situation in all the developed world, certainly here in north america, would be

more in line with chile's than haitis. i think there are building codes in virtually every community in the united states. >> however, in our lifetime we will probably see the detraction of northern los angeles, san francisco, tokyo, one of the big cities could take a hit in our lifetime so we have to be prepared for this. >> geraldo: maybe your lifetime, michio, i'm old. >> geraldo: jason mitchell of global radio news is on the phone from the capital of santiago. welcome. how was it for you? >> i was in bed at the time. it was about 3:30 local time when it hit. my room rattled for a good minute. i heard all my books and videos fall to the ground in the living room. i thought the ceiling was about to collapse. i live on the 8th floor of an apartment building. frankly, it didn't collapse, but it was certainly a very scary moment.

>> geraldo: how long, jason, have you been in chile? >> i have been in chile only five months. before that i lived in argentina for seven years. >> geraldo: the northwestern portion of argentina the neighboring country to the east also felt this earthquake and in fact also had at least a few deaths as a result of it. so this was -- was this your first earthquake at least in chile, jason? >> yes, it is the first earthquake i have ever felt. i felt some tremors here about three weeks ago we felt some tremors. that didn't affect me too much but it certainly is a strange experience but this last night was very dramatic. i have friends that live in -- well, they were on the 14th floor in a high rise here and they said to me that they were really just shaken from one side of the room to the other and they really didn't think they were about to die. but they are safe as well. i agree with you about building

codes. the last friend i spoke to said to me that chile has some of the best building codes in the world and i think they really did help this time around. >> geraldo: was it not also a fact that the government and officials including the president were on the air or on the internet almost immediately reassuring the chilean people that all would be well and emergency services would be out to lend a hand and help them find the missing or injured of? >> she only has another 12 days in office but handled this well. she did manage to calm people down. went to the international emergency center almost straightaway in the middle of the night and started to coordinate the effort and find out what was happening. she went to concepcion herself. the second biggest city in

chile and felt the brunt of this earthquake. >> geraldo: what is the situation on the streets of the capital city where you are now, jason? are there still sirens sounding or emergency service first responders still scurrying about or has the capital city settled down? has the dust settled or do the fires still burn? >> it is a lot calmer now. we are still feeling tremors, though. i felt a minor one a bit earlier. but we are not really seeing fire departments around there. we understand there have been 60 fatalities in the capital and some of the most historic building have come down here including part of the fine arts museum and some of the oldest churches in the city and some of the historic colonial districts have been badly damaged and i suppose in a way that comes back to buildings as

well because they were older building and put up long before the new building codes were put in place. >> geraldo: a history of over 500 years from the spanish colonial days and i remember well on my various trips there that grand colonial architecture and hopefully it can be repaired and restored. jason mitchell, thank you u very much, global radio news. walter munio, a geophysic joins us from los angeles. >> i don't know if you can hear me but i can't just sit on the phone. >> who is this on the phone. >> dale grant. >> geraldo: i thought it was walter. we are live on television. millions of people now can hear your impatiens but thank you for being with us. tell us why the to the extent

that you feel able the tsunami did not live up to the fears that we had when the warning was published? >> well, you guys have been talking about this and the quake -- this quake had a little depth to it and being about 25-kilometers deep or 21.8 miles deep it is -- it mitigates the size of the wave quite a bit. so i would have to say they were very fortunate that this was not shallow as was the quake in haiti. that quake was extremely shallow and that is why there was so much more damage locally. the depth of the quake is crucial because the deeper they are the less energy reaches the surface. >> geraldo: as you speak we are looking at exclusive footage from chile shot at the moment the quake is hitting. people panicked and running about.

do you similar to the previous guests believe that the importance of building codes and building inspection and modern construction is what made the difference between this carrie calamity and the incredible catastrophe that struck in haiti? >> absolutely, building codes are crucial in any city close to a faultline and in this type of situation. kudos to the chilean government for enforcing those and i think it really did reduce the loss of life. >> geraldo: dale grant, thank you. and thank you for your patience as well. ladies and gentlemen, for the next 1:45 we will show you and bring you up close and personally to every corner and every aspect of this twin disaster, this incredible 8.8 magnitude earthquake that caused the buildings to all become leaning towers of santiago or concepcion in

chile. and a tsunami that perhaps was a dress rehearsial for what michio believes still will be o disaster to come.kc>pl live, after this. but five minu, i took symbicort, and symbicort is already helping significantly improve my lung function. so, today, i've noticed a significant difference in my breathing. and i'm doing more of what i want to do. so we're clear -- it doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. my doctor said symbicort isor copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. my copd often meant i had to wait to do what i wanted to do. now i take symbicort, and it's significantly improves my lung function, starting within five minutes. symbicort has made a significant difference in my breathing.

now more of my want-tos are can-dos. as your doctor about symbicort today. i got my firstrescription free. call or go online to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you cannot afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help.

>> geraldo: welcome back to our special two hour presentation on the earthquake in chile and the tsunami that raced across the pacific ocean. just want to give you this head's up. secretary of state hillary clinton is heading to chile as part of a preplanned latin american trip but will be in the country on tuesday to see for herself the aftereffects of one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history. now, i would like to go to our friends dog and beth chapman who as i understand it refused to be evacuated from the hilton

hotel. they are, of course, our favorite bounty hunters and they join us at least i see dawg via sky. thing us back to the beginning. can you hear me. in if you can, tell me when you first got word, did you hear the sirens? is that how you woke up today? do you read me? i hear beth in the background. do you hear me? hello? you look great, daw. if. all right, we will get back to -- we will get back to dawg as soon as we get that skype problem worked out. this must help the scientists as well the interconnected nature. that was a bomb but we have had great reception over the course of the day and as we understand

it, it was the internet and twitters and facebooks and all the other social networking systems that are out there that allowed people to be up-to-date, find granny, you know, maria in the little town where she lived, et cetera. >> back in 1960 when we had the monster quake that hit chile we didn't have the instantaneous communications or space satellite and the sensors that give us this up to the minute latest information so the earthquake of 1960 is a footnote in history but it was a monster earthquake. the largest recorded in modern times. 9.5. >> now, what if a 9.5 were to occur in southern, california, with all of the building codes and rigidly enforced structure there's. i experienced the north ridge quake when i was there. it seems whereever i go the earthquakes follow. would that result in the kind of calamity and catastrophe and

massacre of haiti? >> it would be unimaginable. forget all the hollywood movies of earthquake. we are talking about a shake and bake that would dwarf everything beyond comprehension, a 9.5 in los angeles. and remember that these are earthquakes waiting to happen. they are like time bombs. >> geraldo: let me stop you. you know, you are going with this more than logrithmic expansion of power at the scale. we have experienced 7s and 8s in california. they have been awful but they didn't make arizona beach front. >> right but remember that once-a-year we have an earthquake of magnitude 8 or larger. >> geraldo: some place in the rim of fire. >> that's right. places where no one lives so it doesn't make fox news but an 8.8 is almost beyond comprehension. once every 50 years we have something of that magnitude and if it were to hit california.

look, i grew up in california, i grew up with earthquakes feeling tremors all the time. my grandfather was in the 1906 earthquake that devastated san francisco but that was 7.9. a 9.5 in california would be unimaginable, the damage. >> geraldo: going back to the internet isn't that one of our weapons against at least panic and isn't panic a huge factor in mittty gaiting some of the -- mitigating some of the sharpest etexts of something this awful. >> high tech has helped us because i instantaneously we could get the word out. we could clock it and had buoys that gave us up to the minute readouts of where the tsunami was. this is amazing compared to where we were in 1960. >> geraldo: one of the things that i found extremely interesting as a sailor myself was how in hawaii the decision was made by the united states

navy and the huge historic pearl harbor base to send destroyers and frigates out to sea where the impact of the tsunami would not be felt. is it like a wave on the ocean that doesn't break, you float up and when it crashes on the coast is, that what it is? >> if you were on an ocean liner and the tsunami goes but you wouldn't notice it. it is a slip a few inches tall but it goes all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. it hits ground and the bottom slows down and the top keeps going and the spillover effect can dwarf a city. the wall of water can be up to 60 feet tall in a gigantic earthquake. >> and really goes the speed of a jetliner? >> 500 miles an hour. this is incredible.

the pacific ocean is a pond compared to the energy released by these things and it goes as fast as a jet liner. >> geraldo: that is incredible. let me take a break right now. when we come back, we will continue our far-flung coverage on today's twin disasters. stay tuned to fox news.

ever. >> geraldo: continuing our special fox news coverage on the earthquake in chile and enormous quake, 8.8 on the richter scale. one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history spawning, of course, the tsunami we have been talking about. joining me right now from washington, d.c. is chris mcmullen, the deputy assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere. thank you very much for being with me. we heard the president address

today, he assured the chilean people that the people of the united states stand by them, having been in chile and experienced them sending aid and comfort to other nations that have been afflicted in natural disasters is this the kind of situation where they feel they can handle it on their own? what can the united states do to augment or assist in that process? >> well, i think you're right, geraldo. first of all, let me just express again our condolences to the chilean people and also to commend the chilean government and particularly its first responders for doing an exemplary job under difficult circumstances. chile is probably one of the best prepared countries for this kind of seismic event or tragedy. they were one of the first to respond in haiti. there were peacekeepers in haiti and they flew in supplies

and search and rescue teams. chile is well prepared. there were references to the past earthquakes that they experienced so they practiced many times for this type of thing. my guess is whatever they ask for us and we made an offer of assistance, we have standby teams now, our agency for international development has two disaster and relief teams ready to go. our southeastern command based in miami has a team ready to go if they need it. our ambassador has offered assistance for the chilean government. the chilean government is assessing its needs and will get back to us on what it needs. >> geraldo: in haiti, the quake was so devastating to the government that is ceased to function. we didn't even know if the president was alive or dead for 24 hours because the presidential palace had collapsed, he had been injured and was almost in communicado.

in this case the president of chile on the television and the internet almost immediately. is that something we can learn from. when i was in hurricane katrina there was a dirth of information. it seems we should borrow from the chilean expertise. it seems as if communication was the anecdote to panic mr. secretary. >> you are right. they have done a terrific job across the board not just in responding to this particular tragedy but to helping other countries in the region and beyond haiti really and beyond earthquake assistance. we are working with chile on trilateral cooperation in paraguay and central america. they have a well developed foreign assistance program. there are many ways we can learn from the chileans and they are one of our closest allies and partners in the region. they bring a lot to the table and president obama from the

beginning of his administration said we want partners in latin america that we can work with and i think we can work with chile not just in this hemisphere but beyond on things like this like earthquakes. >> geraldo: isn't it remarkable how much that country has revolved since the military coup in 1973 which was the first a series of 13 earthquakes since then. the government in disarray, taken over by a dictatorship. now, one of the most democratic countries on earthquake, is it not? >> and march 1th the they -- march 11th they are having a transfer of pound for the candy alliance of political parties. shows a maturity that is admirable. they have come through a lot. they have had tremendous macro economic growth over the years. reduced their poverty level substantially so there are many ways that chile really is a showcase country.

it has more free trade agreements. 50 some free trade agreements throughout the world. it as sophisticated country, most globalized country in latin america and one that we certainly want to work with along with some other countries in latin america. >> geraldo: chris mcmullen, thank you for being with us tonight. as the warning sirens sounded across the length and breadth of the hawaiian islands, people evacuated beaches and headed for higher grounds. you are not looking at the hawaiian islands there, that is video from chile but trust me, hawaii was waiting for the giant tsunami that experts feared would inundate the beachfronts. the tsunami never really happened. in the words of one expert, hawaii dodged the bull let but watching it fly by was prominent new york attorney gerald and his wife.

dear friends of mine. they were there on vacation. he is on the phone with me now. >> prom -- where exactly you, jerry, and what are you seeing? >> i'm on the big island kona and looking at the ocean in an easterly direction and the sea is relatively calm. i don't even see whitecaps break. the wind kicked up a little and everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what happens. they are still predicting a serious tsunami. >> geraldo: the small craft, are they still in the harbor or have they gone out to sea. in. >> they were advised to go out to sea. i see a cluster of small vessels, maybe 10, 12 sailboats and power boats and everyone is just waiting. i have to tell you that the authorities here did a very

competent and efficient evacuation of the low-lying areas. it worked like clockwork and they made sure that everyone was brought to higher ground and to safety. >> geraldo: i understand you and your wear terri who were on vacation had a luxurious experience during the vacation? >> a pretty luxurious evacuation also. i'm sitting here pool side up the mountain a bit at the four seasons and you couldn't have a more luxurious evacuation. the superdome it ain't. >> geraldo: how did they tell you that you had to evacuate? what was the tone? >> first we got messages in the room and then they went door to door to alert the people. they have carefully defined zones that must be evacuated and the places that you evacuate to are carefully defined and again, it worked

like clockwork. the island of oahu where the famous waikiki beach is it is different. there is so many people there and and so much congestion, i was over there earlier this week to see pearl harbor and there, people are inches away from each other on the beach, it is crowded. the last time they tried to evacuate that section of honolulu there was gridlock and no one could get through. >> geraldo: that did not happen this time. thank you, gerry shargel. this time was very orderly. of course, it helped that the wave never hit. craig is live at the wai kim ki yacht club. i know you only recently arrived. describe where you are and what you are seeing and is everyone breathing a huge sigh of relief? >> everyone is breathing a sigh of relief. the water is practically like

glass here, you know, thankfully the tsunami did strike but it wasn't the hawaiians were very prepared, though. they received notification of the earthquake striking at 8:45. they put out a warning at 12:30 from their tsunami warning center which is just a few miles from where i'm standing right now and i'm with ed teixeira the vice director of civil defense. how important was it to conduct the evacuations that you did? >> it was pretty important. with an earthquake measuring 8.8 magnitude even our tsunami warning officials were very, very concernd that a quake like that in chile next to the water coupled with tide gage readings along the coast and other readings would result in a very damaging earthquake to hawaii. and other parts of the pacific for that matter. >> we know how poorful they are predicting the -- how powerful

they are predicting the wave. it is a surge which last 15 minutes completely inundating the coastal areas. is that what you were afraid of? >> that's correct. coastal surges overrunning many areas like beachfront properties, hotels, roads, ports and harbors so we had many, many things to be concerned about. >> ironically i was sitting next to the adjunct general for civil defense here in hawaii, general robert lee was sitting next to me getting reports minute by minute from the captain through his men here. tell me about their response. how did they do? >> even before getting on the plane with ed teixeira and the governor and the rest of the officials in the state of hawaii early in the morning we were on video teleconferences and how to prepare the state and all the counties for evacuations of the coastal area and when we would sound the sirens and how we would do the

orderly evacuation. i appreciate the cooperation of the people of hawaii for following all of the guidelines set forth by the authorities and there was virtually no traffic on the streets and everybody cooperated and evacuated to the high levels in the hotels. >> so this is a lot of lessons learned from the sumatra tsunami that occurred, almost a quarter of a million people killed. >> correct. prior to the tsunami and earthquake in sumatra and indonesia, we had only 7 of those deep ocean tsunami registered buoys to give us readings what is going on around the pacific. today we have 43. it is today good to have up tology backing us up and give the people in hawaii and throughout the united states the early west warning possible. >> they did see a surge of water come in at helo bay?

>> that is, correct. that is where we expected the tsunami surge to hit at the very beginning. >> and they saw swirls of water 200-meters wide is that, correct? >> they were up in the helicopter so they could see that normally it is very calm like the water behind us and they could seize all of the debris from the bottom of the bay start churning and so they knew that okay, here is the in surge of the tsunami from chile. >> a load of sediment that traveled 6500 miles and add the cruise ships, i notice a lot of them have gone from the coastal area but the smaller boats are still here. >> what the tsunami center make the decision to place or post a regional tsunami warning for the pacific, allowed us ample time. we were in a warning for 12 hours. so therefore to give us enough time to plan some things ahead

of time so, for example, we made some plans to keep the cruiseships outside the harbors, safely anchored offshore and then enough time to evacuate the harbors and even the recruitin recreation t of the harbor and into safer waters during a tsunami morning. >> i understand your governor spent the evening helping running the operations at the emergency operations center at the crater? >> our governor began to just give me a call every hour for an update and then by 5:00 in the morning she was in the emergency operations center ready to go to work. >> just so you know, your defense mechanism never left pearl harbor. they in a protected harbor there, very safe so they never had to set out to sea. back to you, geraldo. >> geraldo: ask the general, would you, greg, if he fears the fact that the tsunami did not hit will make the

population more difficult to budge to evacuate next time around? >> geraldo is ask,ing, general, whether this kind of false alarm is going to cause people to not be as vigilant an and nt respond the next time you set ought the warning? >> i wouldn't want to use the word this is a false alarm. this is a 8.8 magnitude earthquake quite large and all the models showd that we could possibly have 8-foot to 9-foot waves hitting the coastline for the state of hawaii and i think we got lucky but we should -- >> are you afraid the hawaiians might be complacent the next time you put out a warning as you did on this one? >> no, i think with all the lessons learned from the indonesian tsunami and some of the other smaller earthquakes in the state of hawaii i found our residents and citizens much more prepared this time than in the past and i hope this will continue and improve.

>> well, general, and ed, please stay with us. geraldo, we will be standing by for the rest of the hour. >> geraldo: thank you, craig, thank you, general and coordinator there. we will be back to you, john couple minutes of the oahu department of emergency management in a second. michio is with me. >> i just want to give you specific updates. japan did issue its first major tsunami warning and evacuated hundreds of thousands of residents. they are still being evacuated. taiwan, the huge island semi nation there said they fear a tsunami could hit the island's east coast. tonga where i spent the millennium on the international dateline had 50,000 people evacuate to higher ground and

is a mowia, i foregot that just -- samoa, i foregot that just five months ago, 183 people on samoa died in a tsunami. why weren't they warned? what happened with the intricate system developed since the sumatra tsunami. >> we have 43 station buoys around the pacific ocean. if it happens goes cloture escaped to the target zone there is not enough time to warn the people. here we have plenty of warning because the wave travels at a hundred miles an hour but the distances are huge, thousands of miles so the people of japan and hawaii had plenty of warning. however, sometimes there is no time available. >> geraldo: let's take malibu where i used to live for many years where crestview residents have basically seen everything. do you think that cynicism or

skepticism might blunt a citizen response? >> this is just human nature. people say it was a dud, all this preparation and nothing happened. where was the money shot and the buy it began tick wave toppling the buildings in waikiki beach. we have to tell people that sometimes the monster event actually does happen in our lifetimes. >> geraldo: granted and that is exactly so but doesn't our experience today indicate to you as a scientist that perhaps the science has not matched the reality yet in terms of prediction? >> exactly. we could not predict exactly how high that wave would be when it hit hawaii. it was 6 feet when it hit maui. 5.5 when it hit the big island but it was difficult to predict because your scienc our scienct up to speed.

we cannot predict the exact height of the wave when it makes landfall. >> geraldo: and in dare i say a hawaiian typical stormy day you have waves that would dwarf a 6-foot tsunami, they would wallow the tsunami and we soot surfers with the supermodeller waves probably ten times what tautens was today. >> that's right. some people could say hey, what is all the fuss about, i have seen bigger waves before. >> geraldo: i actually saw some surfers out there today. >> look what happened with the sumatra earthquake of 2004. the wave itself was not that high, 8 to 12 feet but kept on going miles and wiped out entire cities and areas so we have to be on alert for these things. >> geraldo: everybody argues about and debates climate change. whistling or not it is real or just a creation of people with

a pose lit cal agenda. is or is not the rim of fire surrounding the pacifics where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and tsunamis have become common place, are they increasing in activity or just that we can record and report the activity more than we could before? >> mainly the latter. we have a larger population and a media that is instantaneous around the world. okinawa was hit yesterday with a 7.0 earthquake and it wasn't covered at all. because there was no media, no one injured. in the last 15 years there has been an uptick in earthquake activity but in the main it's random because there is no media when most of the earthquakes do hit. >> geraldo: and the uptake could not possiblily be related to human activity. >> probably not. we are talking earth having a temper trang abr

trauma. >> geraldo: i want to go back live to the nation of chile and our reporter there's and around the world. give aus few minutes and come back to fox news for our special report on the earthquake of 2010. 

is it working now? >> yes. >> why didn't you evacuate? >> we were right on the other side of the evacuation lines.

it was crazy all the whales start coming in. the birds came inland. the water started, you could see the corral. things were flopping. we were like okay, get ready right to the last second. it was like an m-80 fire cracker that at the end just didn't blow. >> geraldo: did you think it was like the end of the world as you knew it? >> no, you know, we know how to dodge bull lets and so on but you cannot dodge mother nature. but we were up high so we were prepared. >> geraldo: were you awakened by the siren? describe your morning to us, doing? >> last night we were doing an arrest on a russell hamilton. we captured him and then just as we were leaving the scene all the sirens started and we heard there had been an 8.5 earthquake and all of of a

sudden all the hawaii sirens started and that was it. the radio, television, police were evacuating everybody. it was amazing. >> geraldo: your signal is going in and out there. did you have a real feeling of drama, dog, i mean as hardened as you are to action and danger, did you really believe that you were in the bullseye for this tsunami? >> well, you know, we face danger every day. this was real danger. yes, the whole family was here. leland, the kids, all of us, beth, crazy, you know, i said we got to stay and she said no, you are the leader, let's get out of here. it's crazy. we are lucky to have dodged a huge bull let. >> geraldo: and when the water emptied out and exposed the corral. that must have been fairly freaky. >> and you could see the fish

flopping and we all heard stories and we thought here it comes. it comes in not like a wave, comes in one and three minutes another one and five minutes another one and just keeps coming and still our governor has said all clear but we are still kind of watching because you never know how these happen. scientifically and nature like i said the whales and all that all those signs looked like it was coming. >> geraldo: and then how miraculously passed you by. dog, you are already one of the luckiest guys i know. maybe your luck spread to the hawaiian islands. >> i don't mean to advertise or preach. i got a call from a good man i god and he said none of hawaii will be hurt right now including dog and his family and nobody will be hurt. we won't know untille you and i get to heaven but i think god played a big part, brother, in saving these islands.

>> geraldo: amen to that. give my love to beth and enjoy the rest of your vacation there now hopefully it has passed you by. but dog, thanks a million, i appreciate it, buddy. >> thank you, we love you, brother, thank you. >> geraldo: when they talked of the brown dirty kind of water coming could that possibly have been transported over 6,000 miles from chile or was that just the bottom of the local waters being scooped up by the tsunami? >> i think the latter. when the earthquake hit chile the shockwave of the wave, the disturbance then went all the way but not the substance. water itself would not. >> geraldo: water doesn't move much. >> it was the wavit itself and the vibrations and shockwave that went across that pond called the pacific ocean. >> geraldo: i sailed across it and tahiti had dramatic action.

so there was and the galapagos owned by the nation of ecuador, 600 miles off the south american coast to the west, the most fantastic place on earthquake, i think, also experienced some very, very high water with the tsunami effect. but generally speaking it was not the disaster that we have seen in some local area. of course, we haven't heard the last of it from japan, russia or china. on the telephone with me now is another eyewitness to what happened in chile where it all originated. american matt milinowski is in the capital city of santiago. give us from your reporter's point of view what your experience was when this thing hit at about 3:30 local time this morning? >> good evening. the earthquake struck at about 3:35 a.m. local time and at that time i was fast asleep

after a long hard workweek and i woke to what i would describe as a strong and steady but not yet jarring swaying movement back and forth, back and forth. just to set the scene. i live in a 25 floor apartment building. i'm on the 14th floor. definitely high off the ground but i woke up and grabbed my things and started heading towards the door and suddenly there was just an uptick in the movement and it became a lot more violent and a lot more jarring and at that point it was just became a challenge just to kind of maintain my footing. i was with my girlfriend at the time and grabbed her stuff, ran out the door and ran down 14 flights of stairs and didn't have time to grab our shoes but we made it down okay and out on to the street without any major problems. >> geraldo: to the extent that you can recall with any accuracy, how long did the event last, matt? >> it was definitely, it was

from start to finish it was long. definitely more than a minute and a half. i would say between a minute and a half and two minutes. >> geraldo: so did it have a crescendo and then ease off and did you feel the impact as we watch this incredible video of the shaking from various surveillance cameras. did you have a sense it was going get worse and worse and you had no prediction of how bad it was going to be and then did it ease off or end suddenly? >> my perception is there was a crescendo and reached the high point and kind of held at that high point for 10, 20, seconds perhaps, 30 seconds and then became softer and then eventually stopped shaking. >> and in terms of aftershocks? >> aftershocks have been going on honestly throughout most of the day. they seem to be less frequent.

again, i'm here in downtown santiago and there was a strong one at 4:00 p.m. and another strong one at 8:00 p.m. but they are still pretty frequent but not as frequent as earlier in the day. >> geraldo: did you make a decision to go back upstairs up the 14 flights of stairs? >> yeah, i'm in my apartment now. most people have returned. government officials are calling on all residents just to stay at home, avoid traveling throughout the city as much as possible. my perception from what i have seen and friends i talked to on the phone is that most residents here in santiago are obeying those orders. >> geraldo: i think that is sound advice from a competent government. matt, thank you very much and good luck and i hope your electricity is restored sometime soon so you don't have to keep going up and down the 14 floor walk yum.

i appreciate it. thank you very much. on the phone is usgs physicist walty mooney. we spoke with your colleaguedale. good, you are on camera. i appreciate you being there. >> you're become. >> geraldo: is it always the case that the aftershock is less than the major event itself? >> well, no, sometimes the aftershock can be larger than the major event but that would only be one out of a hundred, 2 out of a hundred. in this case we can expect that the aftershocks will be a lot less than 8.8, probably there will be some aftershocks as large as magnitude 7, however, and that is as large an earthquake as the haiti earthquake and that is just an aftershock. this tells you how big the chilean earthquake really was. >> geraldo: i used to think that an earthquake was the earthquake shaking before i understood this whole plate business. it is really the earth goes up

and down, i mean huge swaths of earth move up and down relative to each other. is that more or less what happens. >> in this case what is going on is that the pacific ocean is being pushed beneath south america. however, it doesn't slide under gratefully. it gets locked, it gets stopped and in this region the pushing of the pacific basin under south america has been locked since 1835. that is a long time. is suddenly lets loose and it does show with a lot of shaking and the vertical motion and horizontal and as you heard from your eyewitness who spit spoke from telephone from santiago, it is a complicated pattern. it crescendos because the waves come in in a veers and a dose

last for a long time. an earthquake like this takes 100 seconds to unzip. this earthquake didn't happen all at once like you might think. the fault unzipped over a period of 100 seconds and during those 100 seconds we have a pretty complicated pattern of shaking. so that is what your eyewitness reporters are telling us and we can confirm that with the seismographs, the instruments that record these earthquakes. >> geraldo: i know you are not a soothesayer but our resident expert colleague michio kaku predicts we will have one of these in the united states in our lifetime. what is the official position of the u.s. geological survey? >> i can give you a clear answer on that. the last earthquake of this size that occurred in the united states was in 1700 in january. we know that very well from the records of the tsunami that

inundated japan. statistically on average an earthquake of that size happens about every 500 years with a.b. uncertainty of 200 years. i would agree with him that we are in the window. it could happen. but we might get past in our lifetime and not see that mega tsunami or mega earthquake i should say in north america and then again, there is a chance. so we can't say for sure but it might not happen as well as it might happen. >> geraldo: thank you, lane, we will be right back with captioned by closed captioning services, inc.