“Leave beach area”: ​​Onemi’s recommendations to evacuate the coastline due to the threat of a tsunami after an earthquake in New Zealand

The National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior reported on the issuance of a message to mobile phones by the Emergency Alert System (SAE). “Leave the beach area as a precaution against a minor tsunami with waves of up to one meter”, expresses the communication of the emergency body that was arranged to be sent en masse at 10 pm this Thursday due to the 8.1 earthquake in New Zealand that generated a state of Precaution for the coasts of Chile.

The Caution status is established when there is a probability that a smaller tsunami will be generated (between 30 centimeters and 1 meter). The instruction is to get away from the beach area, that is to say at least 80 meters from the coastline.

The regional director of Onemi Tarapacá, Álvaro Hormazábal, released a video on social networks detailing the situation, noting that “It is not a call to evacuate.”

“There can be no one in the beach sector, on the coastal edge. In the case of Iquique, from Prat avenue down. In the sand, where I install my parasol, the towel, there can be no one there. It is not a call to evacuate, it is not necessary to go to the meeting points and above level 30, basically people have to leave the entire coastal sector”, He stated.

Hormazábal recommended to people who inhabit buildings on the coastline that “ideally” they go up one floor, as a shelter. He also reported that alarm sirens will not be used in the area and made a call for calm.