Fukushima nuclear plant evacuated amid tsunami warnings
Workers were evacuated from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as a precaution, though no abnormalities or damage were reported at the facility.
The Japan Meteorological Agency upgraded its tsunami warning, anticipating waves up to three metres, with the threat potentially lasting more than a day.
Waves up to 50cm were reported along Japan's Pacific coast, leading Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to urge evacuations to higher ground.
The US Tsunami Warning System also issued alerts for hazardous waves across various regions, with a US president confirming a tsunami warning for Hawaii.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Shocking video shows swimmers and sunbathers IGNORING tsunami warning on Hawaii's Waikiki Beach
Video has emerged showing people brazenly ignoring the blaring tsunami sirens sounding on Hawaii 's Waikiki Beach. While some on the iconic beach in Oahu heeded the warning on Tuesday, others were completely unfazed and kept swimming or hanging out on the sand. An 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula triggered tsunami alerts across Hawaii, Alaska and the west coast of the mainland United States. Some beachgoers who chose to evacuate Waikiki and move deeper into Honolulu were shocked that swimmers chose to possibly put themselves and others at risk by sticking around. 'I went straight home,' Oahu resident Rami Abdallah told Hawaii News Now. 'I just feel like when there's a tsunami warning, people should be very serious about it. They shouldn't think it's a joke because it's life-threatening if it does happen.' Asher Kwon, another Oahu resident, said he's seen videos of tsunami and agreed that they were 'no joke.' 'Me personally, I wouldn't be on the beach. I felt kind of scared for those people, just in case something did happen,' Kwon added. Suzanne Lee-Wen, who was visiting the area, said anyone staying on the shore was 'daring.' 'You never know when the swells could've come in, and it was a little dangerous,' Lee-Wen said. Some residents also criticized those who appeared to be cheering from their high-rise balconies as the first waves were forecast to hit, as many social media videos showed. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the first tsunami warning for Hawaii at about 2:45pm local time on Tuesday. Waves were expected to hit Kaua'i's north shore first at around 7:10pm and reach the other islands in the state by 7:17pm. The center then downgraded the initial alert at 10:38pm and assured residents that a major tsunami wasn't coming. Honolulu only ended up experiencing waves that were about one foot higher than normal sea levels, while Kahului, Maui, saw waves as high as 5.7 feet. Molly Pierce, the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management public information officer, explained that emergency alerts are timed as 'three hours before wave arrival, two hours before wave arrival, one hour before wave arrival, and then 30 minutes before expected wave arrival.' All tsunami advisories were canceled in Hawaii on Wednesday afternoon. 'Tsunami wave heights across the state of Hawaii are now below advisory levels and are continuing to diminish,' the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. 'Small sea level changes and strong or unusual currents may persist for several additional hours in some coastal areas.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Why did Wednesday's earthquake and tsunami produce so little damage?
On Wednesday, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded hit a sparsely populated region in far-east Russia. It triggered a tsunami that started crossing the ocean at hundreds of miles an hour. What followed was a race against time: early warning systems went into alert mode as waves fanned out towards the coastlines of Japan, Hawaii and the US west coast. The damage appears to have been minor so far and this is, in part, thanks to a global and highly successful disaster response effort. More than 3 million people were successfully told to evacuate their homes. At the centre of this remarkable response was the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) based in Hawaii. Founded in 1949, it was monitoring tsunamis across the entire ocean by the 1960s. A small team of experts identified the size and depth of the earthquake, and a tsunami warning was triggered straight away. The whole thing worked like clockwork – their speed and accuracy may have saved thousands of lives, with temporary evacuees now allowed to return home. But this type of work could be under threat. The PTWC is part of a US government agency that has faced cuts from the Trump administration. The 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday morning. The rupture happened along hundreds of kilometres of a fault line where the Pacific plate is sinking below the North American plate. This is one of the largest faults on Earth – it's called a megathrust fault – and parts of it are underwater, which means there is always a tsunami risk. The earthquake was 30 miles (47km) beneath sea level and sent shock waves at a range of 200 miles. Tsunamis travel across the ocean at about 500mph, the speed of a jumbo jet, so some communities had a just few minutes' warning; while those on the other side of the ocean had a few hours. Unlike in the movies, when it's typically one massive wave, tsunamis are often several waves that will continue to travel around the world for days. The epicentre was near the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000 people. Residents fled inland as ports flooded, while 200 miles north, the Klyuchevskoy volcano (above) erupted, with lava descending its western slope. Maximum tsunami wave heights of 4 metres (13ft) were observed in Kamchatka. Some buildings on the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk in Russia were swept away, according to local officials. The Kremlin has said alert systems 'worked well' in the earthquake response and there were 'no casualties'. The tsunami prompted warnings and evacuations across the Pacific, including in Japan, the US west coast, Hawaii, Canada, Chile, Ecuador and New Zealand. Nevertheless, the height of the waves turned out to be lower than initially feared. In Hawaii the highest recorded waves reached 1.8 metres, in California there were surges of just over a metre, and in Japan waves remained under half a metre. Local authorities were clear about how to evacuate and gave specific locations across more than a dozen nations. In Hawaii, for example, tsunami warning sirens blared. Evacuations were ordered for some coastal areas as the Honolulu department of emergency management announced: 'Take action. Destructive tsunami waves expected.' People received alerts on their phones. All islands activated emergency operating centres, shelters opened, and people in coastal areas were told to go to higher ground. Similar warnings were issued elsewhere. In Japan, almost 2 million people had been ordered to higher ground. Local media reported one fatality of a woman killed while driving her car off a cliff as she tried to escape. In Chile, authorities conducted what the interior ministry said was 'perhaps the most massive evacuation ever carried out in our country' involving 1.4 million people. Ilan Kelman, professor of disasters and health at University College London, says: 'It looks like it's been very effective. People had that long-term education, and that long-term readiness to know what to do,' . He estimates that this preparedness saved thousands of lives. At this time of year there is a lot of tourist activity along many Pacific coastlines, and visitors are often unfamiliar with local warning systems or evacuation zones. This can make evacuations more challenging. 'It appears from places where the tsunami wave has hit, numerous lives were saved by drawing on that past experience,' says Kelman, notably the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami which killed more than 200,000 people. At the time there was no regional tsunami early warning system in place, and the Indian Ocean was not considered a high-risk area. Some warnings were sent by fax and email, and didn't reach people in time. The 2004 tsunami was also significantly more severe – some waves exceeded 30 metres in height; whereas so far waves from this latest tsunami appear to have reached a maximum of 5 metres in Russia, says Kelman. In most places, waves were less than a metre high, and in many places effects were negligible so the disaster that was anticipated didn't arrive. This is another important factor in why damage has been limited. Several international centres send out automatic messages for earthquakes, depending on the location. The Indian Ocean tsunami warning system was set up after 2004. Kelman says: 'It was never done before then because it was always too expensive, there were always other priorities, but suddenly it became a priority … It has been tested several times with mixed results, so we have to improve it.' There is no effective equivalent for the Atlantic Ocean. The main one that identified this earthquake was the PTWC. 'They were on it right away,' says Kelman. 'Knowing the size of the earthquake and the depth of the earthquake and the type of the earthquake meant that there was a significant chance of a major tsunami. They issued tsunami warnings and got the messages out there, which were then disseminated by national governments and local authorities.' However, the PTWC sits within a US government agency targeted by Elon Musk-led cuts earlier this year. Kelman says this tsunami shows how needed it is. He says: 'We would hope that if the cuts did affect them, they will be reversed and that the people who have saved lives today will also get more support for appropriate resources. 'It appears that they were nonetheless exceptionally effective, and we owe them so many thanks for issuing appropriate messages and saving many lives.'
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Rockfall prompts evacuation from popular hiking trails in Italian Dolomites
Hikers have been evacuated from the Italian Dolomites after multiple rockfalls, causing the immediate closure of popular routes and trails. The rockfalls occurred over the weekend on western and eastern sides of the Cima Falkner mountain. The entire summit was affected by 'morphogenetic phenomenon', or erosion and weathering, according to a statement by Trento council. Cima Falkner is undergoing permafrost degradation, which is the thawing of ground that has been frozen for a long period of time, causing rocks to tumble from the summit. An inspection by local authorities found that the mountain is subject to an ongoing landslide with the potential for the situation to worsen. Investigators found that the largest detachment happened during the night between Saturday 26 July and Sunday 27 July. On Wednesday 30 July, the local council said that small collapses were continuing on the summit of the mountain, which they described as 'opening like a flower.' Mountain routes 305, 315, 316 and 331 were closed while experts assessed their safety. The mayors of Tre Ville and Ville d'Anaunia also issued emergency ordinances on Monday to prohibit access to the trails starting from the Grostè Pass. Trails 315 and 316 have since reopened after authorities concluded continuing rockfalls would not directly affect these routes. These trails are the two most popular for walkers in the area. Route 316 leads to the Tuckett Refuge, which sits at the foot of the Castelletto Inferiore: one of the most famous peaks in the Brenta Dolomites. The Trento Fire Brigade are using drones to assess the erosion of the mountain, finding wide cracks on the rock surface. 'The fractures, previously filled with ice, are now partially empty, indicating a change in the morphology of Cima Falkner,' the council said. 'This evolution is also linked to the degradation of permafrost, an element that at high altitudes plays an important role as a 'glue' for the rock mass.' Italian scientists have warned that extreme heat, caused by the changing climate, is melting the vital frost. ' Mountains, by definition, are destined to collapse – they won't remain as we know them for ever. What's different now is that we're seeing a clear acceleration of these processes, driven by heat and extreme weather events intensified by the climate crisis,' Piero Carlesi, president of the scientific committee of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI), told La Repubblica. He added: 'Never before have we seen such an incredible increase in rockfall.' The council added that the total unstable mass on the summit could potentially be around 70,000 cubic metres, although the collapse of the entire slope is not expected. Around 36,000 cubic metres fell over the weekend. The rockfalls come after concerns over a surge in injuries and deaths in the Italian mountains, as the number of visitors surge in the region this year. So far in 2025, more than 80 hikers have died on the Italian Alps and Dolomites, Italian Alpine Rescue told The Telegraph, with many slipping or falling to their deaths on steep paths.
