The Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched an emergency platform with two forms to search for and locate Chilean citizens who may have been affected by the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Panama this Friday.
According to T13, the earthquake's epicenter was in the south of the Central American country, in the town of Pitoza. The Foreign Ministry explained that the tool aims to "facilitate the search for, location of and reporting on Chilean citizens" affected by the emergency.
The platform offers two options. The first, "Find an affected person," is designed to report the situation of a relative or someone close and request help finding them. It is accessed by clicking the red box on the website.
In that section, the person making the inquiry must enter the details of the person to be located, their own details as the requester and their family relationship. They can also add information that may help with the search.
The second option, "I have information," appears in a green box. It can be used to report that the person submitting the form is safe or to provide information about others, including reporting a sighting of another person. The form also allows users to flag whether the person has a medical emergency.
According to T13, users are instructed to choose either option depending on whether they are in Panama or are an immediate family member, such as a parent, sibling or child, of a fellow Chilean who may be affected.
The Foreign Ministry asked users to complete the details as accurately as possible and coordinate with family members to centralize the information. The aim, according to the ministry, is to avoid "the submission of multiple alerts for the same person," which hampers the network's work.
The earthquake also had effects in Chile. The National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) declared a precautionary status in Rapa Nui because of the tsunami risk. Hours later, the Navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA) canceled the tsunami threat for all of Chile's coasts.
The sources have so far provided no figures for Chileans living in or visiting Panama, nor any reports of Chileans affected. The forms remain available on the Foreign Ministry's website.
