Puerto Ayora: People across the Pacific were forced to grasp what they could and run for their life after a powerful 8.8 earthquake struck the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia on Wednesday.
The massive earthquake sparked Tsunami alerts from Japan to South America, sending waves to crash into ports, closing the beaches and causing chaos while millions of people rushed on safer land.
It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The earthquake generated waves up to four meters (12 feet) in height.
The initial earthquake has caused limited damage and only light injuries, although it has been the strongest since 2011, when 15,000 people have been killed in Japan.
But tsunami warnings have been issued in more than a dozen countries, millions of residents have been alert.
In Russia, a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk, submerging the local fishing plant, officials said.
Russian state television images have shown that buildings and debris have swept the sea.
The increase in water reached the monument of the Second World War of the city about 400 meters from the shore, said mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov.
In Japan, nearly two million people were invited to go to higher grounds before warnings were demoted or canceled.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant in northeast Japan – destroyed by a huge earthquake and tsunami in 2011 – was evacuated, said its operator.
A woman was killed as she was driving her car from a cliff as she was trying to escape, local media reported.
A strip of the Pacific coast of South America remained under a warning from Tsunami in 1800 GMT on Wednesday.
In the Galapagos Islands, the national parks were closed, the schools were closed, the speakers needed warnings and tourists were animated outside the tourist boats and on land safety.
“As residents here, we are really afraid: there is this feeling of uncertainty, we really do not know what will happen,” said Patricia Espinosa from Isabela Island, where residents were taken on higher grounds on buses and trucks in Benne.
“Once the wave train has arrived … maximum heights up to 1.3 m have been observed,” according to the Oceanographic Institute of the Ecuadorian Navy. “Disruptions are currently recorded, which will continue in the coming hours.”
Peru closed 65 of its 121 Pacific ports while the navy warned that fishing should be suspended and people should stay away from the coast.
Earlier, Tsunamis sirens rose near the popular Waikiki beach in Hawaii, where an AFP photographer saw importance traffic while the Hawaiians escaped on a higher ground.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green said flights outside the island of Maui had been canceled as a precaution.
“Stay hard and stay safe!” US President Donald Trump said on social networks.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center then lowered Hawaii alert to an opinion, and local authorities canceled a coastal evacuation order.
Russian scientists reported that the Klyuchevskoy volcano had broke out shortly after the earthquake.
“Red-heated lava is observed flowing on the Western slope. There is a powerful glow above the volcano and explosions,” said the geophysical survey of Russia.
Pacific alerts
Wednesday’s earthquake was the strongest in the Kamchatka region since 1952, the regional seismic surveillance service said, warning replicas up to 7.5.
The USGS said the earthquake was one of the 10 strongest tremors ever recorded.
The earthquake was followed by at least six aftershocks that have shaken the Russian Far East more, including one of the 6.9.
In Taitung in Taiwan, Wilson Wang, 31, told AFP: “We advised customers to stay safe and not go out and avoid going to the coast.”
Pacific Nation Palau, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the Philippines, ordered the evacuation of “all areas along the coast”.
Waves up to four meters are expected during the night in the brand Islands, in French Polynesia, the authorities said in a press release.
