Navy ruled out tsunami when informing Bachelet

SANTIAGO.- "The epicenter is on land, therefore there should be no tsunami". That was the information that the Navy -through its hydrographic and oceanographic office “Shoa”- delivered to President Michelle Bachelet in a communication at 05:20 am on Saturday, nearly two hours after the earthquake that struck central – south of Chile.

This is what was informed in a private report submitted by the commander of the Navy, Admiral Edmundo Gonzalez, to the head of the Joint Chiefs of Defense, General Christian Le Dantec. El Mercurio newspaper had access to this document.

The report states that SHOA discarded any possibility of a tsunami during a direct communication with the President.

At around 05:30 am, the Onemi (National Emergency Office) ruled out the possibility of a tsunami, and soon after, in her first public appearance Bachelet did not allude to the subject. Both before and after that, several coastal towns were hit by waves of varying intensity.

The mistake, which has been at the center of controversy and has triggered the President’s profound discomfort with the Navy, was recognized last night by Admiral Gonzalez on Chilean National Television.

"The President called SHOA at 05:15 am, to see if she should keep the warning that was given to her an hour and ten minutes ago. We were not clear with the information delivered to the President to cancel or to maintain it (...). There was hesitation on our part", he said.

SHOA did warn the National Emergency Office

With these statements, it has become clear that initially SHOA did warn the National Emergency Office, Onemi, of a tsunami. The fax communication was contained in Le Dantec’s report.

According to this document, at 04.07 am on Saturday -half an hour after the earthquake- SHOA informed the Onemi that the "conditions (the earthquake) could generate a tsunami. It is unknown whether this has already happened. We will keep you informed".

This contradicts a version submitted on Saturday by the head of the Onemi office, Carmen Fernandez, who first denied receiving a tsunami warning from SHOA, but later said they had received a fax, but was unreadable. She has defended the institution’s work.

In this context, yesterday Admiral Gonzalez strengthened the Navy’s position adding on TVN (Chilean National Televison) that in addition to the fax "we relayed the same information –that there was a tsunami alert- at approximately 03:55 am to the Onemi, via HF (high frequency communication)”.

Hence, the admiral acknowledged a "shared responsibility" in the tsunami deaths. "I say with all honesty, we are very sorry, but the truth is that the situation was like that", he said.

Meanwhile, the president-elect, Sebastian Piñera, said that "when a quake happens at an epicenter close to the sea, one should anticipate some things quickly. First, that there is a serious warning of a tsunami (...) What a Government should do is anticipate the problems”.