I'm not buying the coastal winds theory either. It sounds less like a scientific explanation and more like something that's being said just to keep people calm.

I don't know a lot about the science behind it, but wouldn't coastal winds or sea breezes typically be blowing toward a land mass and be responsible for something more like a thunderstorm than the disappearance of the ocean? And how does the coastal winds idea explain the massive waves happening in Chile while the ocean disappears on the opposite side of the continent?

Based on my limited understanding, I'd say this phenomenon has something more to do with plate tectonics, specifically the movements of the South American and Nazca Plates and possibly the Cocos and Caribbean Plates. Again, I'm not entirely sure what I'm talking about, so please be kind if I'm totally off base here