The Coastal Towns and Villages Suffered Major Losses and Damages: Pelluhue is One of Them

Constitucion is wiped. There are very few survivors!

Most of the confirmed deaths so far are in the Maule region on the Chilean coast, which was closest to the epicenter. As much as 80% of some towns in the region was destroyed, officials said.

 The coastal town of Talcahuano was hit by destructive tsunami waves that took everything in their path.  The down is under water.  Losses of lives and property are wide-spread!

"Unfortunately, we found whole families buried in the rubble," said Alejandro Boettiger, a firefighter from the southern city of Talca. An exhausted Mr. Boettiger spoke as he carried an elderly woman out of her badly damaged apartment building.

In tiny Pelluhue, a southern coastal village of 1,000, waves harpooned 70-foot cypress trees into beachfront homes, while washing other houses up onto the slopes above town. Plywood and other debris littered the coast and floated offshore.

"The earth started shaking so violently that we couldn't stand,