Chilean-Canadians try to reach relatives after quake

Canadians were scrambling Saturday to discover the fate of their relatives and friends after a deadly earthquake rocked the country in the early morning, killing more than 100 people, and setting off a tsunami that could affect British Columbia's coast.

"It's a lot of collapsed buildings, lot of bridges, most of them fairly new and they all just came down like paper," said Jose Astorga, president of the Winnipeg Chilean Association, whose members have been able to contact some family in Chile, but have not been able to account for all their relatives.

Canadian officials were also trying Saturday to establish communications with Canadians who may be in the affected zone.

"Canadian officials in Santiago and Ottawa are currently assessing the situation to clarify the extent of the damage as well as to determine the potential impact on Canadians who are currently in Chile," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a written statement.

The Chilean government declared a state of catastrophe following the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake.

There areabout 1,100 Canadians registered as being in Chile, said Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.But the earthquake has devastated phone services in the South American country, he said.

"Communications are extremely sporadic," Cannon said in an impromptu teleconference."Cellphones, or for all intents and purposes wireless communications, are very sketchy. The hard communication lines are down as well."

Many people have turned to social networking sites to try to connect with people affected by the massive quake.

"I still don't know about family members, but Facebook is helping me more than the telephone," said Ledda Urbani, vice-president of the Quebec Chilean Association in Montreal.

Nell Halse, a spokeswoman for Cooke Aquaculture, a New Brunswick company that has operations in southern Chile, said the company has eight people from Canada in the country.

"The news we have is everyone seems to be accounted for," she said, adding Twitter helped make the initial contact.

Even members of the Chilean Olympic team were feeling for their countrymen on Saturday. Chef de mission Luis Alberto Santa Cruz said all three members of the team and their families are doing well.

Cannon said Canada has stockpiles of emergency supplies that it could provide to non-governmental aid organizations in Chile, should the government there issue a request for help.

However, the minister ruled out sending Canada's military disaster assistance response team, commonly referred to as the DART team.

In a statement, Gov. Gen. Michalle Jean said her heart goes out to Canadians of Chilean descent."From one natural disaster to another, here we are put to the test once again. After the terrible earthquake that devastated a number of cities and villages in Haiti just weeks ago, the destruction has made its way to Chile," said Jean.

There are an estimated 40,000 Canadians of Chilean descent living in regions of Canada extending from Quebec to areas throughout the western provinces.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross said the international response to today's deadly earthquake in Chile likely won't be as big as what has been needed in Haiti.

Canadian Red Cross senior manager Jean-Pierre Taschereau said Chile can much better deal with such a disaster and the Chilean Red Cross has been quick in its response to the quake.