First, it was ridiculous to sound the big tsunami alarm to Japan and Australia: as the map below shows

the distance is 10 times greater than between Sumatra and Sri Lanka; even if you want to be careful, after Hawaii only saw 3 metre waves, there was half a day to reduce the alarm for the pacific west.

It was like Millenium bug again, except that no one made money out of this.

The death rate is much lower than Haiti - the strength was much agreater, but further away from population centres; in the nearest large cities, the level of the shock in the two earthquakes seem similar; also both happened at night with most people asleep; however, the common situation in Chile was that a building might crack along their weakest points, the rest of it stays more or less intact

so that the people inside did not get crushed by rubble; brick buildings, however, are more liable to disintegrate

note that the wooden frame managed to stay up, and the roof did not collapse.

If it happened during rush hour, many more would have died in their vehicles