SANTIAGO, Chile – Some 240,000 residents have mobilized on Chile's northern coast to test responses to a simulated earthquake and tsunami. It's the biggest such exercise ever conducted in the South American nation.
Friday's drill of more than an hour involved police and volunteer organizations who practiced spreading the alarm, helping people take protective measures and overseeing evacuations.
The exercise is part of the Chilean government's efforts to prevent a repeat of the tragedy accompanying the 8.8-magnitude earthquake of February 2010. The quake and tsunami it set off killed 524 people.
Experts from Japan's security agency monitored the drill to offer advice.
(This version CORRECTS that those mobilized were residents as well as emergency workers)
