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In the early hours of Friday, earthquakes of 7.3, 7.4 and 8.1 struck near the remote island of Kermadec in New Zealand. After them, dozens of repeated serious underground crashes were recorded and a tsunami was declared in a huge region.
In New Caledonia and Vanuatu, waves of up to 3 m in height were forecast, with thousands of people moving to higher places. The threat has also been announced in other states and territories from New Zealand to Peru, Russia and Antarctica.
In New Zealand, officials said all 4,000 people had been evacuated. people from the town of Opotiki on the North Island.
Keith Wooderson said he sought refuge in the hills outside the city.
“The queues and lines of cars stretched as far as the eye could see. We didn’t even get off our minibus, we just waited until it was free. There was no panic, everything went very well, “he said.
Eventually, 1m high waves were reported at New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands, and witnesses in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila saw only a few larger waves breaking ashore and flooding the boardwalk.
There have been no reports of significant damage, and the only known effect on human health so far is mild dehydration found in traffic jams in Tahiti for people trapped for several hours.
The Pacific Tsunami Alert Center (PTWC) announced that the threat had not completely disappeared and that in South and Central America after 1 pm 30 minutes. There may not be much tsunami in Greenwich Mean Time (3:30 pm Lithuania).
However, in many places, including Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Vanuatu and French Polynesia, the warnings have been withdrawn or relaxed.
After the initial scare, when the alarm sirens sounded, the schools by the sea were evacuated and some parents were told to run to higher places without trying to pick up their children so that there were no traffic jams, it was finally easier to breathe.
In New Zealand, where many coastal communities had to evacuate, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: “It is difficult not to feel that our country is going through a phase of failure with an earthquake, tsunami warning and pandemic warning on the same day.”
Fiona Rudsdale, who runs a camp at Whangarei Central Holiday Park on New Zealand’s North Island, fell asleep during the first earthquake but woke up to the sirens that warned of the tsunami.
He immediately set out to organize the evacuation of some 30 of his guests to the nearby hills.
“We took them to Morningsaid Park, from there you can see everyone [Fangarėjaus] campus, ”Rudsdale told AFP.
“We added food and drink, it all worked out pretty well.” A couple of idiots were still driving in town, but most of them are behaving as they said, “he added.
In other places, there were residents who went swimming or surfing.
Emergency Management Minister Kiri Allan said coastal communities had responded to the warnings.
“Very quickly people got together, grabbed backpacks, sat in cars and gathered away from shore or in high places,” he said.
The coast guard had ordered hundreds of ships that left to retreat further into the ocean.
Significant tremor
The most powerful earthquake occurred approximately 1,000 km off the coast of New Zealand at 8 pm 28 min. (Thursday at 9:28 pm Lithuanian time), reported the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
This was preceded by two other strong underground crashes. It is even a series of powerful unusual tremors in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire.
“Earthquakes of 8 points or more occur on average only once a year in the world, so this is a significant earthquake, due to its [židinio] Adamas Pascale, chief scientist at modern technology company ESS Earth Sciences, which specializes in seismology, geotechnical and hydrological monitoring systems, said it could cause a tsunami.
Prime Minister Ardern was also awakened by the earthquake.
“I hope all is well, especially the people on the east coast, who should have felt the full force of that earthquake”, after 2 pm 27 min. wrote on the social network Instagram in April.
The country recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake. That 6.3-point earthquake killed 185 people in this South Island city.
