Tsunami warning for US coast, flooding in Hawaii
Similar warnings were issued by nations throughout the Pacific, including New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu and Australia as well as for coastal Chile.
Tsunami warnings were issued on Saturday for the entire US West Coast after a massive volcanic eruption across the Pacific Ocean in Tonga, with tsunami waves triggering low-level flooding in Hawaii. The US National Weather Service issued tsunami advisories from the bottom of California to the tip of Alaska’s Aleutian islands, predicting waves of up to 60cm, strong rip currents and coastal flooding.
“Move off the beach and out of harbours and marinas in these areas,” it advised.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said “a tsunami is currently being observed” in Hawaii, but said there was “no reported damage and only minor flooding throughout the islands.”
Frightened Tongans fled to higher ground as the eruption triggered a tsunami in the island nation, with a 1.2m wave observed in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa.
Similar warnings were issued by nations throughout the Pacific, including New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu and Australia as well as for coastal Chile.
The latest eruption of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano lasted at least eight minutes and sent plumes of gas, ash and smoke several kilometres into the air.
A Twitter user identified as Dr Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau posted video showing waves crashing ashore. “Can literally hear the volcano eruption, sounds pretty violent,” he wrote, adding in a later post: “Raining ash and tiny pebbles, darkness blanketing the sky.”
Tsunami reached Japan late on Saturday through early Sunday, and waves as high as three metres were possible, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said, hours after a massive volcanic eruption near Tonga.
The agency said a 1.2m tsunami reached the remote southern island of Amami Oshima around 11.55pm local time on Saturday before other areas along Japan’s Pacific coast observed smaller tsunami.
