Tsunami waves hit Hawaii: News24: World: News

Honolulu - Tsunami waves hit Hawaii in the early morning hours Friday and were sweeping through the island chain after an earthquake in Japan sparked evacuations throughout the Pacific and as far as the US western coast.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre says Kauai was the first island hit early on Friday by the tsunami, and the waves surged in Waikiki.

Officials predicted Hawaii would experience waves up to 2m, and officials spent hours evacuating ahead of the storms. The waves early on Friday weren't that large.

Residents in coastal areas of Hawaii were evacuated to refuge areas at community centres and schools while tourists in Waikiki were moved to higher floors of their high-rise hotels.

Roadways and beaches were empty as the tsunamis struck the state, which had hours to prepare.

The tsunami was generated by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan.

The governor of Hawaii ordered the evacuation of coastal areas and warned residents to take the threat seriously. People waited in long lines stocking up on gas, bottled water, canned food and generators, and officials told residents to stock up on water and fill their cars with gas.

The tsunami slammed the eastern coast of Japan, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people as widespread fires burned out of control. It's travelling at 800km/h - as fast as a jetliner - and likely won't change speed until it hits a large area of land, said Kanoa Koyanagi, a geophysicist for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

Islands to amplify waves

Waves are predicted to hit the western coast of the United States between 11:00 and 11:30 (local time) on Friday. People near the beach and in low-lying coastal areas of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County were told to move immediately inland to higher ground.

While the tsunami is likely to go around smaller islands, the size of Hawaii's islands will amplify the waves, which will crash hardest against harbours and inlets.

"They're going to be coming in with high currents, they can pick up boulders from the sea floor ... they can pick up cars, they can pick up fuel tanks, those things become battering rams and so it just amplifies the destruction in a big tsunami," said Chip McCreery, director for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

Waves almost 1.5m high hit Midway, a tiny island in the North Pacific about 2 100km northwest of Honolulu.

"We're preparing for the worst and we're praying for the best," said John Cummings III, spokesperson for the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management.

The Honolulu International Airport remained open but seven or eight jets bound for Hawaii have turned around, including some originating from Japan, the state Department of Transportation said.

All harbours are closed and vessels were being ordered to leave the harbour.

The warnings issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cover an area stretching the entire western coast of the United States and Canada from the Mexican border to Chignik Bay in Alaska.

All-clear

In Alaska, a dozen small communities along the Aleutian Island chain were on alert. The first waves - about 45cm - hit the western portions of the islands with no reported damage.

In Oregon, county officials in Oregon were assessing whether to sound sirens; waves in Brookings in southern Oregon could also hit 2m.

The tsunami was expected to hit the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory at 04:00, but no big waves came. Waves about 80cm high hit the beach in Saipan, and sirens still sounded in the empty streets.

Maria Mettao, who works at the front desk of the Hyatt Regency Saipan in the Northern Marianas, said hotel staff has been given the all-clear. Mettao said the hotel has allowed guests to leave from the higher floors where they had been evacuated.

The warning was issued on Friday at 03:31. Sirens were sounded about 30 minutes later in Honolulu alerting people in coastal areas to evacuate. About 70% of Hawaii's 1.4 million population resides in Honolulu, and as many as 100 000 tourists are in the city on any given day.

Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management has created refuge areas at community centres and schools, and authorities on Kauai island have opened 11 schools to serve as shelters for those who have left tsunami inundation zones.

Streets cleared out across Hawaii with usually bustling Waikiki mostly free of any foot traffic, with police ordering every one into the hotels. At the hotels, visitors were evacuated to the third floor and higher.

"The situation we're confronting right now is unpredictable. We do not know how many waves are going to be coming," said Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle.

Rescue crews preparing

"We do not know which wave, if any wave, causes the most damage and how long the series of waves can last. As a result of that, it is our responsibility to do those things which are absolutely essential to ensure that human life is saved."

A small 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Big Island just before 05:00, but there were no reports of damages and the quakes weren't likely related, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey said.

US Coast Guard rescue crews were making preparations throughout the Hawaiian Islands to provide post-tsunami support, with cutter and aircraft crews positioning themselves to conduct response and survey missions.

Dennis Fujimoto said the mood is calm but concerned on the island of Kauai while people readied for the tsunami.

There's long lines at gas stations, and at the Wal-Mart, one of the few places that was open to midnight, people were stocking up on supplies.

"You got people walking out of there with wagonloads of water," he said.

The worst big wave to strike the US was a 1946 tsunami caused by a magnitude-8.1 earthquake near Unimak Islands, Alaska, that killed 165 people, mostly in Hawaii.

In 1960, a magnitude-9.5 earthquake in southern Chile caused a tsunami that killed at least 1 716 people, including 61 people in Hilo. It also destroyed most of that city's downtown.

On the US mainland, a 1964 tsunami from a 9.2-magnitude earthquake in Prince William Sound, Alaska, struck Washington State, Oregon and California. It killed 128 people, including 11 in Crescent City, California.

via news24.com