Last night a 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit the central regions of Chile.

The most damaged area is located between the Regions of Maule and Biobio, specially in big cities like Concepción, Talca, Curico and Chillan (the city jail, after 200 prisoners escaped http://img162.yfrog.com/i/ua9a.jpg/), but also in smaller towns like Cauquenes (near the epicentre), Chanco and others, and in coastal towns and cities like Constitución, Dichato, and this afternoon Talcahuano. Also the Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernandez Archipelago was razed by the sea: http://twitpic.com/15qhe2 http://twitpic.com/15qfpg http://twitpic.com/15qg40

The quake hit hard even 850 kilometres north of the epicentre in La Serena http://osm.org/go/MbM0xA--. I live in Santiago http://osm.org/go/MaKekN-- 400 kilometres north of the epicentre and the movement was terrible, the walls from my apartment cracked (not structural compromise as far as I see, but a clear reminder of how much the building moved). The church in front of my apartment http://www.flickr.com/photos/julio_costa/4392508348/.

My mother was near Dichato about 60 Kilometres south of the epicentre and when we finally talked this morning she depicted a nightmarish sight. Houses floating in the small bay and boats in the middle of the town. The town was razed by the sea as the houses from the resort where she was staying (she was at a higher level apartment, so leaving aside the structural risks from the terrible movement she was safe).

Right now the news channels are showing the devastation in the small coastal towns from the Maule Region. It looks pretty much like the Southeastern Asia tsunami from 2004.

You can see some photos and read a New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/world/americas/28chile.html?hp

There is a CrisisMappers/CrisisCommons effort going on right now: http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/Chile/2010_2_27_Earthquake http://groups.google.com/group/crisismappers-chile and a Wiki coordination page: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake

More information later