Continue reading »]]> After a morning of rushed evacuations, the tsunami that reached Hawaii midday Saturday was smaller than officials had feared, causing no reported damage and never rising more than about three feet above sea levels, authorities said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted its warning for Hawaii about two hours after the series of waves hit Hawaiian shores, and later for most of the rest of the Pacific.

"It’s a big relief," said Jenifer Rhoades, the National Weather Service’s tsunami program coordinator. "It was pretty scary. We’re glad it turned out to be an event where there wasn’t tremendous impacts in terms of loss of life."

The cancellation means residents who evacuated could begin returning to their homes. More than 144,000 people lived in the evacuation zone.

The biggest waves were reported at Kahului Bay in Maui, but even there no flooding or damage was reported, said Shelly Ichishita, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Defense Civil Defense Division.

"All the evidence indicated it would be larger," said Barry Hirshorn, a geophysicist at the Tsunami warning center. "This was a very large earthquake in a part of the world that tends to produce very large tsunamis. We need to walk a line between a false alarm and missing something that’s dangerous and could kill people. Since the science is not exact, we chose to err on the side of not killing people by missing something."

A tsunami warning remained in effect for Russia and Japan.

As the tsunami neared Hawaii, triggered by a massive earthquake in Chile, Hilo International Airport on the big island of Hawaii, which is near the southern coast , was closed, and all crews aboard vessels and on the ground in state ports were ordered to evacuate. A warning siren sounded at 6 a.m. local time, alerting residents to tune into their local television and radio stations for instructions.

"We are counting on the public to follow all the instructions of our emergency personnel," said Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle. "Anyone who is ordering you to evacuate you need to take it seriously. We need you to evacuate in an orderly fashion.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had been briefed and was monitoring developments from Vancouver, where she is leading a U.S. delegation for the Olympics.

Four Hawaii-based U.S. Coast Guard cutters prepared to get underway to ride out the tsunami at sea, and the service planned to reposition aircraft at low-lying Air Station Barbers Point near Honolulu to be able to respond if big waves hit, officials said.

Lingle declared a state of emergency, a step aimed at making needed resources available, including the National Guard. Several water pumping stations that are in low-lying areas were shut down to prevent equipment from being damaged by flooding.

washingtonpost.com

Continue reading »]]> A 7.9 magnitude quake about 209km (130 miles) south-east of Tonga triggered a tsunami in the South Pacific, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

A regional tsunami warning was issued, but withdrawn just over an hour and a half later.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) had said high waves were likely to hit Tonga, Samoa and other islands around the region.

The quake hit at 0618 local time (1818 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).

“It may have been destructive along coastlines of the region near the earthquake epicentre,” the centre said.

There were no immediate indications of any damage or casualties on Tonga’s main island, Tongan police said in the capital, Nuku’alofa.

US monitors advised that some coastal areas of Hawaii could see a rise in sea level and strong currents lasting up to several hours but said no destructive impact was expected.

‘People laughing’

Tonga resident Pesi Fonua told the Associated Press the quake had lasted for “something like 20 seconds” but he had seen no damage.

Police spokesman Niua Kama told the agency residents did not appear to take the warning seriously.

“People are out on the roads, laughing at the warning,” he said.

They were not moving back from the coast despite tsunami warnings, the spokesman added.

Mary Fonua, a resident of the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa, described experiencing “a lot of rattling and shaking”.

“It went on for about 30 seconds, and I went outside and the house was shaking for about another 30 seconds,” she told AFP.

The epicentre is 480km (300 miles) south-east of Fiji’s Ndoi Island and 1,830km (1,140 miles) north-east of Auckland, New Zealand.

The island state of Tonga is a developing tourist destination.

Tsunami after South Pacific quake

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An underwater volcano has erupted close to the Tonga coast, in the South Pacific ocean.

Scientists sailed to inspect the the volcano, which has been shooting smoke, steam and ash into the air near the low-lying twin volcanic islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai.

Local authorities said coastal villages close to the active volcano were not yet at risk, and that no warnings had been issued.

Underwater volcano erupts off Tonga

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Continue reading »]]> JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A strong earthquake in remote eastern Indonesia cut power lines, cracked building walls and sent panicked residents running out of their homes toward higher ground Sunday, authorities and witnesses said.

The Indonesian Meteorology and Seismology Agency warned that with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 it was strong enough to cause a tsunami. However, there were no immediate reports of giant waves and the warning was lifted within an hour.

The tremor struck at 2:43 a.m. local time, around 85 miles off the coast of Manokwari, Papua, at a depth of 6 miles.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the strength at a more powerful 7.6 magnitude and nearly three times the depth. Shallow earthquakes generally cause more damage than deeper ones.

Electricity went off and people fled their homes in the dark, fearing a tsunami, said Hasim Rumatiga, a local health official.

In the town of Sorong, very near to the epicenter, a resident told El Shinta radio buildings and houses had been slightly damaged.

Indonesia straddles a chain of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific ”Ring of Fire” and is prone to seismic activity. A huge quake off western Indonesia caused the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed around 230,000 people, more than half of them in Sumatra.

(This version CORRECTS RECASTS lede, UPDATES with tsunami alert lifted, ADDS details, color. corrects Asian tsunami was 2004, sted 2005.)

Tsunami Alert Issued After Indonesian Quake – NYTimes.com