Strong aftershocks rock Chile inaugural ceremony

SANTIAGO, Chile — A series of strong aftershocks from last month's devastating quake rocked Chile on Thursday as a new president was sworn into office and immediately urged coastal residents to move to higher ground in case of a tsunami.

The strongest aftershock, with a magnitude of 6.9, was nearly as strong as the quake that devastated Haiti's capital on Jan. 12. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.

The Chilean Navy issued a tsunami warning while the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the aftershocks were too small to cause dangerous waves beyond Chile's central coast.

President Sebastian Piñera was inaugurated at a congressional building in coastal Valparaiso before the building was evacuated as a precaution. The seven aftershocks strongly swayed buildings, shook windows and sent frightened Chileans streaming into the street.

The magnitude-6.9 aftershock is the strongest since the day of the Feb. 27, magnitude-8.8 quake. It occurred along the same fault line, said geophysicist Don Blakeman at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo. The USGS initially estimated the aftershock's magnitude at 7.2.

"When we get quakes in the 8 range, we would expect to see maybe a couple of aftershocks in the 7 range," he said.

Blakeman said Chile now can expect to feel "aftershocks of the aftershock."

Chile's navy issued a tsunami warning. The government's emergency office — much criticized for failing to issue a tsunami alert that might have saved hundreds of lives from the towering waves that followed the initial quake — urged Chileans to seek higher ground even though the epicenter of Thursday's biggest shock was inland.

Last month's earthquake — the fifth-strongest since 1900 — killed 500 identified victims and potentially hundreds of others, destroyed or heavily damaged at least 500,000 homes and broke apart highways and hospitals. Repairing infrastructure alone will cost $5 billion, and overall recovery costs could soar to more than $15 billion.