Nearly a week after Chile's 8.8 magnitude earthquake, local media are asking whether Chilean officials raised the tsunami warning in coastal communities in time, who is to blame for the late call and why the tsunami alert was lifted so soon after the quake struck.
Local media were quick to highlight that a lack of communication and coordination and contradictory orders between Chile's navy, the Office of National Emergency (ONEMI) and the
president in the hours after the quake meant a tsunami alert was not immediately raised.
The tsunami, triggered by the earthquake, wiped out some coastal villages along Chile's Pacific Coast. More than half of the 800 people killed in the quake were known to be casualties of the tsunami, government officials say.
The Chilean navy raised the tsunami warning at 3.55 am, 21 minutes after the earthquake struck, according to reports in Chile's
" target="new">El Mercurio newspaper.
But experts say the tsunami warning should have been raised earlier, within 10 minutes of the quake striking, to give coastal communities enough time to seek higher ground.
Chile's media has been documenting the minute-by-minute chain of events following the quake, exposing political infighting between the various government and military agencies, who each blame each other for not clearly warning coastal towns.
Much of the blame is being placed with the Chilean navy and its Oceanography Service (SHOA), which is responsible for raising tsunami alerts.
Chile's President Michelle Bachelet said there had been contradictory information and "little clarity" about the epicentre of the earthquake.
"The epicentre is on land, so there should be no tsunami," was the information send by the navy's Oceanography Service to Bachelet two hours after the quake.
It later transpired that the epicentre was under the ocean.
Navy officials made a public apology of sorts.
"We were not clear enough in our communication with the presidency on whether to maintain or cancel the alert," said naval chief Edmundo Gonzalez.
"There was a hesitation on our part," he added.
Bachelet said in response that: "It took a lot of courage on his part to acknowledge that there had been little clarity and precision ..."
She said she had phoned navy chiefs an 'infinite' number of times to determine whether or not a tsunami was approaching.
But on Wednesday, the Chilean navy defended its initial response following the quake. In a press statement, the navy said it had 'clearly' raised the tsunami warning on three separate occasions, including a message sent to ONEMI 21 minutes
after the quake striking and an alert published on its SHOA website 70 minutes later.
Alberto Maturana, the former head of the ONEMI, described the response as a 'comedy of errors', according to El Mercurio newspaper.
He added that the emergency agency should have advised the president to declare an immediate 'state of catastrophe'. This was eventually declared by the government 36 hours after the
earthquake struck.
Chile, a quake-prone country that has suffered earthquakes in the past, has to improve its response and monitoring systems, said Bachelet.
"I think effectively we have to improve, there must by more experts, we have few seismologists, few geologists," she said.
While emergency officials bicker and point the finger at each other, for many survivors it is clear that the government failed to warn them about the tsunami in time.
Locals in the coastal town of Pichilemu say they didn't receive a tsunami warning, according to a BBC report.
For a graphic, click here
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