27/02/2010 - A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 has struck central Chile, triggering a tsunami. The quake that devastated Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, in January was magnitude 7.0.
The tremor shook the capital, Santiago, for a minute and a half early this morning, bringing down telephone and power lines.
The quake centred 200 miles south-west of Santiago at a depth of 22 miles, according to the US Geological Survey. The epicentre was 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile's second largest city, with a population of around 670,000.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on 22 May 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless.
Four SOS Children’s Villages in the greater area of Concepcion are ready to immediately provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied children and to support reunification with families.
SOS Children’s Villages has a long experience of work in Chile. The organization started to operate in Concepción in 1965, when the first Village was established . Inadequate infrastructures in the immediate vicinity led to the creation of a number of additional facilities in the following years, such as SOS Kindergartens, SOS Youth Facilities, SOS Technical Schools, and various SOS Social Centers. In the following years the number of Villages continued to grow in other areas of Chile, especially in the central region. At present there are thirteen active SOS Children's Villages, eleven SOS Youth Facilities, four SOS Kindergartens, two SOS Vocational Training Centers and ten SOS Social Centers.
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