rolando santos is vice president of cnn chile, live in santiago. at the weather center with more with what comes next. rolando, can you get me up to date on the death and injuries and damage totals? what's the story? >> we're waiting now for the next report from the chilean version of fema, the next half hour. as it stands right now, there are six people dead in the region. we don't have a number of casualties at this point. there are three pressing problems. the number of aftershocks. so far, there have been more than 94 aftershocks since the initial earthquake last night at 8:45, 8:46 p.m. the second big issue is, that part of the country is a northern -- is a very northern tip of the region. is a desert area. and they have water problems to begin with. and remember, ashleigh, down here we have opposite seasons from you. we're actually going out of our summer into winter. or fall and into winter. and we had a particularly dry summer. so water at this point is very important. about half of the region does not have electricity at this point. and of

rolando santos, cnn vice president of chile, is joining us now live from the capital of santiago. rolando, give us a sense, how destructive was this quake? >> well, given the magnitude of the quake, actually, not very destructive. and i'm not minimizing in any way the six people who lost their lives. by the way, of the six people, four of those lost their lives through heart attack. the other two as a result of the earthquake. but if you look at the damage in the region, compared to when you and i talked during the quake four years ago here in santiago, you don't see the wide scale kind of destruction where you have tall buildings burning overnight and all of that. a lot has to do with the region, wolf. as you know, in the very northern region, desert country. not very many tall buildings. the biggest problem turns out to be the smaller buildings in the small towns between the two major cities, because they're not as earthquake-proof. >> given the normality, 8.1, on magnitude, 8.1, a lot of folks are saying, you know what, this really wasn't the big one that chile had expected, oth

. >> rolando santos reporting on the latest conditions in chile. we will be watching and waiting to hear more information. for folks watching at home, if you would like to help those affected about i this recent earthquake, go to cnn.com/impact. at this hour, senators on capitol hill with more tough questioning for general motors ceo, mary barra and a highway safety official. barra, the ceo of g.m., asked to explain why her company dragged her feet for years replacing faulty ignition switches. the problem would cut off the engine and deactivate the air bags and power steering and brakes. it all comes too late for 13 people whose deaths are being blamed on the problem. senator claire mccaskill called g.m. out for what she called a culture of cover-up. >> even under the new g.m., the company waited nine months to take action after being confronted with specific evidence of this egregious violation of public trust. >>> this just in. the supreme court has removed ban on individual amounts donors can make to campaigns. this could have an immediate impac