( CNN ) -- Thousands of Chileans may have to sleep in the streets Wednesday night after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rattled the north part of the country , killing at least two people , injuring dozens and destroying hundreds of homes . Valentina Bustos shot this photo Wednesday of earthquake damage at a hotel in Antofagasta , Chile . `` There are more than a thousand , 1,200 houses , at least , that were totally flattened , and others in bad shape , '' Tocopilla Mayor Luis Moyano said in an interview that aired on Radio Cooperativo . Tocopilla , Chile , north of Santiago , is about 35 km ( 21 miles ) from the quake 's epicenter . `` Tonight , people are going to have to sleep in the street , because there are a great number of houses that are uninhabitable , '' said Moyano . Places that could be used as shelters , such as schools and gyms , were damaged in the quake , the mayor said . Moyano put the number of people without shelter at 4,000 . Tocopilla 's population is 24,000 . Moyano described going through the damaged city and running into people asking , `` Mayor , my house collapsed . What do I do ? Mayor , I do n't have water . What do I do ? '' `` It gets to you , '' he said . Paula Saez with the aid organization World Vision told CNN she was on a treacherous drive attempting to reach Tocopilla . `` There 's no electricity and there 's a lot of landslides '' covering the road in spots , she said , and the highway was spotted with holes . Once in Tocopilla , Saez said , she was prepared to offer tents , blankets and medicine to citizens and assess additional needs . The government 's Office of National Emergency reported that two women had died and others were injured in the city . Officials identified one of those killed as 54-year-old Olga Petronila Ortiz Cisternas . The other fatality was an 88-year-old woman . Watch what a 7.7 earthquake can do » . Municipal official Ljubica Ukurtovic , in an interview with Chilean TV station TVN , said that `` approximately 100 people '' had sought treatment at a Tocopilla hospital . The quake collapsed a roadway tunnel , temporarily trapping about 50 construction workers . See where the quake struck » . High-level government sources said the workers had been rescued . Repair work on the 793-meter ( 2,600-foot ) Pedro Galleguillos tunnel , completed in 1994 , began on October 1 and was to be finished early next year . Tocopilla is about 1,245 km ( 780 miles ) north of Santiago and the quake was felt in Peru and Bolivia , according to the U.S. Geological Survey . The temblor was centered at a depth of 60 km ( 37 miles ) , the USGS said . A tsunami warning was issued for the South Pacific coast after the quake hit , but was canceled within an hour . Chile has been the scene of hundreds of strong earthquakes throughout history , including the largest one of the 20th century on May 22 , 1960 . The quake that struck southern Chile that day registered a magnitude 9.5 and launched a tsunami that caused damage as far away as Hawaii , Japan and the Philippines . Nearly 6,000 people died as a result of the quake and its tsunami . A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck southern Chile on January 25 , 1939 , killed 28,000 people . A magnitude 9.0 earthquake in what was then southern Peru but is now northern Chile killed 25,000 people in 1868 . E-mail to a friend .
NEW : Tocopilla mayor : More than 1,200 homes flattened , shelters damaged . Dozens of workers freed from collapsed roadway tunnel , officials say . Chilean Navy is moving heavy equipment into the area to help with rescue . 7.7 quake north of Tocopilla happened at 12:40 p.m. ( 10:40 a.m . ET )