In the aftermath of the 8.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile's coastal regions on Wednesday, port cities all along the coast still resemble disaster zones. Small aftershocks continue to disrupt recovery efforts and cities are in a mess.

The earthquake, whose epicenter was around 141 miles north-northwest of Santiago, struck at 7:54 p.m. Its tremors shook the coast for three minutes.

"I thought it was the end of the world and we were going to die," Manuel Moya, age 38, Illapel, confided tearily. He and his wife had been watching television in bed when tremors shook their house.

The couple ran outside unclothed and watched the tremors reduce their concrete home to rubble. They ended up sleeping on the ground outside.

While the destruction looks total, in actuality infrastructure and buildings remain relatively intact, and casualties are minimal.

Interior Minister Jorge Burgos stated on Thursday night that the death toll was 12 with five people missing.

Seismologists attribute this to Chile's focus on structural reinforcement and the continued refinement of its tsunami alert system.

"Chile has good codes and good compliance, which together have reduced the vulnerabilities of their building stock over the decades," according to the 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."

The Andean nation has had to prepare itself for such eventualities, beingsituated on one of the world's most seismically active areas.

In 1960, the world's strongest earthquake ever recorded hit Chile at a magnitude of 9.5, killing over 5,000 people.

Following a major earthquake in 1985, the country upgraded construction codes, according to a U.S. Geological Survey civil engineer.

Most urban buildings can now stand against gravity's vertical forces and the horizontal jolts caused by earthquakes.

Learning from another disaster in 2010 when a magnitude-8.8 quake hit south-central Chile and killed over 500 people, response teams were much quicker and the general population was more mentally and physically prepared.

The government, too, sprung to action much faster. In 2010, the national emergency office failed to issue a tsunami warning to evacuate the coast, causing an astronomical casualty count.

This time around, tsunami alerts started soon after the tremors and continued on throughout the day.

"The alerts worked well. We had enough time to evacuate before the tsunami waves came," said Patricio Barria, a fisherman whose coastal shop was wrecked.

"Two people died here, but there could have been many more. I think Bachelet learned her lesson."