Russia relieved as tsunami spares far east from casualties, major damage
MOSCOW: Russia lifted a tsunami alert on Wednesday after a massive quake and tsunami largely spared the country's sparsely populated far east from casualties and major damage. One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia's sparsely populated Far East on Wednesday, causing tsunamis up to four metres (12 feet) high across the Pacific and sparking evacuations from Hawaii to Japan.
Russian state television on Wednesday aired footage of a tsunami wave sweeping through Severo-Kurilsk, a coastal town on an island close to Japan, carrying buildings and debris into the sea.
Giant waves crashed through the port area and submerged a fishing plant in the town of about 2,000 people, some 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of the earthquake's underwater epicenter, according to authorities. The epicenter was 47 kilometers (30 miles) beneath the sea level and sent shock waves at a range of 300 kilometers (200 miles), Russia's geophysical survey told state news agency RIA Novosti. The waves, which were up to four metres high in some areas, reached as far as the town's World War II monument about 400 meters (1,312 feet) from the shoreline, according to mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov.
Most of the town lies on higher ground safe from flooding, he added. 'Everyone was evacuated. There was enough time, a whole hour. So everyone was evacuated, all the people are in the tsunami safety zone,' he said at a crisis meeting with officials earlier. A tsunami warning for Kamchatka was lifted later on Wednesday. 'Thank God, there were no casualties,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, saying the region's warning system had helped. CCTV footage released by the Kamchatka region's health minister, Oleg Melnikov, showed surgeons holding down a patient on an operating table when the earthquake rocked the area. Regional governor Vladimir Solodov said on Telegram he would nominate the doctors for state awards, adding: 'Such courage deserves the highest praise.'
An expedition group from the Russian Geographical Society was on the Kuril island of Shumshu when the tsunami swept away their tent camp. 'When the wave hit, all we could do was run to higher ground. It's very difficult to do that in boots on slippery grass and in fog,' group member Vera Kostamo told Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda. 'All the tents and structures were swept away by the wave, and our belongings were scattered across the beach for hundreds of meters. 'We have no casualties, everyone acted quickly, but we lost all our belongings.' Authorities in the Sakhalin region, which includes the northern Kuril Islands, declared a state of emergency. The regional seismic monitoring service said the earthquake was the region's strongest since 1952. 'Strong aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 7.5 should be expected,' it added.
The magnitude 8.8 quake struck off Petropavlovsk on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, and was the largest since 2011 when one of magnitude 9.1 off Japan caused a tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people.
Almost two million people in Japan were told to head to higher ground and tsunami warnings were issued across the region, before being rescinded or downgraded -- though scientists warned of the danger of powerful aftershocks.
A tsunami had already hit and flooded the port town of Severo-Kurilsk, crashing through the port area and submerging the local fishing plant, officials said. Russian state television footage showed it sweep buildings and debris into the sea.
Authorities said the population of around 2,000 people had been evacuated.– AFP
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