COQUIMBO, Chile — Parts of this port city were a disaster zone Thursday after an 8.3-magnitude quake hit off the coast, killing at least 11 people and likely causing billions in damage. Overturned cars and splintered boats lay in mud next to furniture, toppled adobe homes, and fishing nets tangled in trees.
The most stunning thing about Wednesday night’s earthquake, however, may be the relatively small amount of havoc caused by such a powerful quake.
While the quake caused more than 1 million people to evacuate coastal areas and no doubt resulted in much anxiety, seismologists said Chile’s heavy investment in structural reinforcement of buildings and constant refinement of its tsunami alert system helped prevent what would have been a catastrophe in less prepared nations.
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‘‘Chile has good codes and good compliance, which together have reduced the vulnerabilities of their building stock over the decades,’’ said Richard Olson, director of Florida International University’s Extreme Events Institute. ‘‘I would rather be there in one of their cities than in many other countries in an earthquake.’’
Living in one of the world’s most seismically active places, the Andean nation’s 17 million people have little choice but to become expert in earthquakes. The strongest earthquake ever recorded occurred in Chile: a magnitude-9.5 tremor in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people.
After another major earthquake in 1985, authorities began implementing strict construction codes similar to those used for highly seismic regions in the United States such as California, said Kishor Jaiswal, a civil engineer with the US Geological Survey.
Most buildings in urban areas of Chile are designed to withstand both the vertical forces of gravity and the horizontal jolts that an earthquake inflicts. Buildings in many other developing countries can withstand gravity and wind but have limited resistance against very strong earthquakes.
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Wednesday’s quake struck just offshore in the Pacific at 7:54 p.m. and was centered about 140 miles north-northwest of Santiago. The quake was 7.4 miles below the surface.
It lasted a nerve-shattering three minutes, swayed buildings in the capital, Santiago, and prompted authorities to issue a tsunami warning for the country’s Pacific coast.
People sought safety in the streets of inland cities, while others along the shore took to their cars to race to higher ground. Several coastal towns were flooded from small tsunami waves.
The fortified constructions were evident in Coquimbo, a port city that was one of the closest to the epicenter. While adobe houses and some small concrete structures collapsed, the vast majority of buildings were left intact.
A small area of the city, which neighbors call La Serena, was covered in mud left by inrushing waves. Boats and cars were overturned, and dead fish were mixed in with debris.
‘‘It looks like a war zone here,’’ said Marcelo Leyea, a mechanic carrying a duffel bag with tools he was able to salvage from his collapsed shop. ‘‘But we were more prepared than during the 2010 earthquake.’’
Even fortified infrastructure didn’t prevent a high death toll in 2010, when a magnitude-8.8 quake in south-central Chile killed more than 500 people, destroyed 220,000 homes, and washed away docks, riverfronts, and seaside resorts.
To be sure, the 2010 quake was more powerful in terms of energy released, according to the US Geological Survey. And while the 2010 quake hit in the middle of the night, Wednesday’s tremor hit during an evening when many Chileans were outside for barbecues and other celebrations ahead of the country’s Independence Day on Friday.
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People were also more prepared. Schools increasingly have earthquake drills and society is filled with creative solutions to quakes, such as restaurant owners who nail wood railings to shelves to keep glasses and liquor from crashing down.