shasta darlington is back on the phone with us. , what's the very latest in sao paolu. >> reporter: the deputy minister of the interior says no deaths, no major damage to infrastructure. there were some small landslides in northern chile'. of course we've had those initial waves about 1.5 meters to 2 meters. and they're waiting to see whether or not they get more tsunamis coming to the shore. they're waiting for that. that's the big issue. that's why they've ordered these evacuations. they have ordered the evacuations of the whole coast. but it's really the northern coast of chile' what's concerning them. the epicenter of this earthquake, 8.2 magnitude was off the coast of iquique, a mining town. that's where the real focus is and that's where we'll be watching, michael. >> how are the evacuations proceeding as best you know? >> reporter: what we have seen are some images of people in nearby cities, basically looking for higher ground in a very orderly fashion. getting their belongings together, basically the bare necessities, movin

shasta darlington joins me on the phone. what are you hearing, shasta? >> reporter: there have been a series of tsunamis that have washed up on the northern coast of chile with waves up to eight feet. the government ordered the evacuation of the entire coast of chile. but they've really been active on the northern coast. so we've seen thousands of people moving to higher ground. even those who aren't close to the coast are moving out in the open, camping out in fields, in sports centers where they don't have to worry about falling buildings and debris in the case of the many after shocks. you mentioned this is wone of te bigger stories, the escaped inmates from this women's prison. authorities are having to deal with this earthquake and track down these inmates. so these are the latest bits of information we're getting. electricity has been knocked out, communication is not fully up and running. so we're working to get you more as we get further away from this earthquake. >> i know authorities talked about flying in more security personnel to deal with t

shasta darlington from brazil joins me. shasta, what are you hearing? what's the latest? >> reporter: well, anderson, as you said this has really happened just a short while ago. so we're just getting the first indications of how powerful this could be. the first tsunami has hit the northern coast of chile' about six feet as you said. obviously for some of the coastlines further away it can take much longer, even hours before we get any indication of whether or not there will be or how big those tsunamis will be. they're already evacuating dozens of families. they've already ordered the evacuation of thousands of people in northern chile'. we've seen pictures of dozening of them packing up their things. and fairly calmly, i must say, getting their things together and moving to higher ground. chile', like so much of this region, is prone to earthquakes. they are accustomed to them. and in one of the very big recent earthquakes they didn't issue the tsunami warning early enough. this is important for them to get this warning out there and get people to higher ground. so tha