Chile evacuates beaches and islands before tsunami warning | After the violent volcanic eruption in Tonga

Chile has ordered the evacuation of most of its beaches before a possible tsunami arrives Volcano eruption on the island of Tonga In the southeastern Pacific Ocean. With the exception of two southern regions, 4,000 kilometers of the Chilean coast will have to be evacuated. About 500 kilometers south of Santiago, it was possible to observe the receding sea, revealing several meters of sand that usually remains under the sea water.

Chilean authorities have warned residents of the possibility of a tsunami Easter Island and the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, located more than three thousand kilometers west of Chile. The most significant areas are Coquimbo (central-north), Los Ríos and Los Lagos (south), the only ones in a state of “tsunami alert”, since ripple records exceeded one meter in height. . , the National Emergency Office (Onemi) indicated.

Residents of these areas received a text message asking “Leave the beach area, due to a slight tsunami”. Only the southern regions of Aysen and Magallanes are excluded. Since the morning, the country has recorded a variation in the height of the waves between 30 cm and 1 meter.

They explained from Onemi and the Chilean Navy that they had activated the usual protocols in Chile after the earthquake that could cause a tsunami. Although with Underwater volcano eruption in Tonga The behavior of waves and tides is “abnormal”. “It’s something that has never happened to us, that makes us quickly take precautions to be able to alert people”Admiral Leonardo Chavez explained at a press conference.

As summer arrived in Australia, thousands of people were on the beaches of Chile and before the alarm reached their mobile phones they evacuated coastal areas. Accustomed to tsunami evacuation drills, Chilean men and women quickly departed for areas higher and farther from the coast. In places like Dechato, about 500 kilometers south of Santiago, where a large tsunami was recorded in 2010 as a result of an earthquake of magnitude 8.8, it was possible to observe how the sea receded from the shore, exposing several meters of sand that usually lingers under the sea, According to Agence France-Presse.