Huge quake off Russia sparks Pacific tsunami warnings

CHIBA, Japan (AFP) — One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s sparsely populated Far East early Wednesday, causing tsunamis up to four meters across the Pacific and sparking evacuations from Hawaii to Japan.

The magnitude 8.8 quake struck in the morning off Petropavlovsk on Russia’s remote Kamchatka peninsula and was one of the 10 biggest recorded, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Russian authorities said a tsunami hit and flooded the port town of Severo-Kurilsk, while local media said one of between three and four meters high was recorded in the Elizovsky district of Kamchatka.

A video posted on Russian social media showed buildings in the town submerged in seawater. Authorities said the population of around 2,000 people was evacuated.

Several people were injured in Russia by the quake, state media reported, but none seriously.

“The walls were shaking,” a Kamchatka resident told state media Zvezda.

“It’s good that we packed a suitcase, there was one with water and clothes near the door. We quickly grabbed it and ran out... It was very scary,” she said.

Authorities in Russia’s far eastern Sakhalin region declared a state of emergency in the northern Kuril Islands. The mayor there said that “everyone” was evacuated to safety.

Officials from countries with a Pacific coastline in North and South America — including the US, Mexico and Ecuador — issued warnings to avoid threatened beaches.

In Japan, nearly two million people were advised to evacuate, and many left by car or on foot to higher ground.

But there were no injuries or damage reported by early afternoon and the highest surge recorded was 40 centimeters — although authorities maintained warnings of waves up to three meters.

In Hawaii, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said residents and the thousands of visitors should get to safety on upper floors of buildings or higher ground.

“People should not, and I will say it one more time, should not, as we have seen in the past, stay around the shoreline or risk their lives just to see what a tsunami looks like,” governor Josh Green said.

“It is not a regular wave. It will actually kill you if you get hit by a tsunami,” Green said.