Chile officials to be charged for botched tsunami alert

Houston News.Net
Saturday 11th February, 2012

Eight people in Chile, including a former minister, would be charged with failing to issue a proper tsunami alert after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit the country in February 2010, killing at least 500 people.

The most prominent among them are former deputy interior minister Patricio Rosende and the erstwhile head of the Onemi emergency management agency, Carmen Fernandez.

Among the other six are former officials of Onemi and of the Chilean navy's oceanographic service.

In 2010, a video was released that had been filmed in Onemi offices showing a prevailing lack of coordination among the authorities following the earthquake, including then president Michelle Bachelet and top military commanders.

In that temblor, the sixth most powerful ever to be recorded anywhere in the world, around 500 people died. The material damage was estimated at $30 billion.

--IANS/EFE

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