Lomnitz (2004) describes the event as follows:
"All five stockades in the Indian Territories (Imperial, Valdivia, Villarrica, Osorno, and Castro) were destroyed. More than twenty people were killed in the Valdivia outpost. The tsunami reached the outpost "while the earth was still shaking" and a bore developed in the Valdivia River (as in 1960) "so that one could see the stones" on the bottom. The tsunami was observed as far north as Concepcion. Nearly 100 Indians drowned near Imperial. There were damaging aftershocks. Large landslides blocked the outlet of Lake Rinihue, again as in 1960. Four months later the landslide at Rinihue was overtopped and more than 1,200 Indians were drowned."