Here’s the live feed from TV de Chile being played out on ustream. Reports are conflicting, bottom line, a major earthquake of at least 8+ degrees on the Richter scale hit Chile at 3:30 a.m. local Chile time.

Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV

The transmission is in Spanish, I’ll translate some of what they’re saying.

• So far, the official number is that there have been 84 dead, but they are expecting the number to climb as more information becomes available.
• Chile is no Haiti, so I don’t expect the death toll to rise as high as the recent Haiti earthquake.
• On March 11th, the president elect of Chile was supposed to take power. Hillary Clinton was supposed to arrive next week for an advance visit.
• The king was Spain was en route to Chile when the earthquake hit. No word on where they’re diverting his flight to

Update: 9:27 am CST

The president elect of Chile came on the TV show

• Says they will cooperate with the current administration in the recovery efforts
• Offered complete help from his incoming administration
• Says that they will need the help of the current administration as they take over power on March 11th
• The current president and the president elect will both tour the affected region of O’Higgins later today

Here is a link to the coverage on CNN

Update 9:37 am CST

Lots of damage reports indicating downed bridges, power lines, fibre optic cables cut and communication has been affected throughout all of Chile. Reports indicate that there has been a lot of damage to roadways and crevasses have opened up on the major freeways.

Concepcion is the city/ region that has been most affected. They are reporting a 9 degree on the Mercali scale earthquake.

Update 9:51 am CST

From the Ustream live feed:

Embajada chilena en Venezuela llamar solo si es necesariopara evitar colapsarlos: (0212) 992.33.78 / 9923378
Chilean embassy in Venezuela, please only call if necessary to avoid collapsing their lines: (0212) 992.33.78 / 9923378

PARA ENTRA A CHILE A TELEFONO FIJO SSE NECESITA EL CODIGO DE LA CIUDAD… SANTIAGO … 00562
TO CALL CHILE ON A LAND LINE, YOU NEED TO DIAL THE AREA CODE OF THE CITY … SANTIAGO … 00562

Update 9:56 am CST

Person finder on Google to try to help people find people affected by the Chile earthquake
http://chilepersonfinder.appspot.com/

Update 9:59 AM

Contact Information for the Chilean embassy in Washington:

CONTACT US

Embassy of Chile
1732 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C.
Tel.: 202-785-1746
202-530-4127 (Political Department)
Fax: 202-887-5579
E-mail: politico@embassyofchile.org

Update 10:02 am

Bio Bio region, 2 year old building pancaked, 2 fatalities so far in the building, but at least 20+ survivors have either walked out or been pulled out from the building

Update 10:05 am CST

Bio Bio most of the damage was on the newer buildings. The newest bridges and access routes to these structures are the most affected.

Update 10:10 am CST

Update 10:19 AM CST
The President of Chile has come on, saying that they are trying to get the hospitals online and trying to get an army field hospital online in themost affected regions. In the Maule state/ region of Chile is where the president gave the interview.

Most of the buyildings in the city of Talca in Maule are made out of adobe. The Prez asked people that are able bodied to get in touch with their mayors and local authorities. There are reports of looting coming from several parts of the city.

Update 10:30 AM CST

The person in charge of the office of emergency management giving a report on the status of various roads, bridges, telecom and other infrastructure throughout the country.

The Airport in Santiago is closed pending a damage report to the control tower. The runways appear to be in good shape. All air traffic is being diverted to other airports.

Update 10:38 AM CST

Hillary Clinton has cancelled her visit to Chile next week.
The King of Spain has been diverted somewhere else. He was en route to a conference about Latin America’s influence on the Spanish language. The conference was set to begin on Monday. The conference was cancelled. Also cancelled is the closing ceremony for the Viña del Mar music festival.

Update 10:42 AM CST

Fox news coverage of the quake
MSNBC coverage of the quake

Update 10:45 AM CST

School year was set to start on Wednesday March 3rd, no word if they are going to postpone the start of classes nationwide. The education minister (Monica Jimenez) says region 7 will not start due to lack of water, electricity etc. They will continue to update as it comes in.

The education minister says that schools in the region declared a disaster zone, classes will not start until at least March 8th. Classes in the unaffected, or regions not declared a disaster zone, classes will start as planned

Update 11:02 AM CST

On the Island Juan Fernandez, the high tide/ tsunami brought water almost 2 miles inland. No reports of damage and reports about the missing, etc. are spotty

Update 11:07 AM CST

The news reports have just started reviewing and repeating the same information from earlier in the day.

Update 11:23 AM CST

During the earthquake, or soon after it, in the city of Talca there was a riot at the jail. Lots of prisoners tried to escape through a hole in the wall. No word as to how many or if any got out. It is believed that the riot is now under control.

Update 11:27 am CST

Lost the feed from TV de Chile. Maybe they had an aftershock that knocked out their power or something.

Update 14:03 hrs CST

The latest number on the casualties stands at 147. They are also estimating that over 1.5 million homes have been damaged, with 500,000 of those suffering severe damage that makes these homes uninhabitable.

Update 14:31 CST

Despite damage to the refineries around the Biobio region, there is enough gasoline and other fuels for 2 weeks worth of normal consumption. They are asking for people to not start hoarding gasoline to make sure that there is enough fuel for the emergency vehicles and operations.

Also said that there is no rail service of any kind, anywhere in Chile today. They’re anticipating subway service to resume tomorrow morning and nationwide rail service will be restored as soon as they can finish inspecting the railway system.

Update 14:50 hrs CST

Watching this webcam with a view of the ocean. They’re a couple of tools talking over the feed, so just watch with the sound off. Camera is at Uncle Roberts awa bar

Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV

Update 1650 hrs CST

The tsunami that was heading towards Hawaii was not as big a deal as the media was making it out to be. At least so far anyway. Waves are up to 5 feet or so, but no damage or anything like that so far.