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Monday, April 02, 2007
Earthquake triggers tsunami in Solomon Islands, 3 feared killed (2:10 p.m.)
HONIARA, Solomon Islands -- A massive undersea earthquake sent a tsunami crashing into the South Pacific nation of Solomon Islands on Monday, destroying at least one town and killing at least three people, officials said.
The Pacific region, from Australia to Hawaii, went on high alert for several hours after the magnitude-8 quake struck between the islands of Bougainville and New Georgia, though officials downgraded warnings as the danger period passed.
Police and residents said a wave several meters (yards) high crashed ashore at Gizo, a regional center in the country's west just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the temblor's epicenter, inundating buildings and causing widespread destruction.
"All the houses near the sea were flattened," as water "right up to your head" swept through the town, resident Judith Kennedy told The Associated Press by telephone.
"The downtown area is a very big mess from the tsunami and the earthquake," she said, adding that aftershocks were still being felt several hours later. "A lot of houses have collapsed. The whole town is still shaking."
Her father, dive shop owner Danny Kennedy, estimated the height of the wave at 10 feet (3 meters).
"I'm driving down the street - there are boats in the middle of the road, buildings have completely collapsed and fallen down," he said by mobile phone.
"We're just trying to mobilize water and food, and shelter for people at the moment because ... in the town alone there's going to be between 2,000-3,000 homeless. It's not a very good scene at the moment."
A man who answered the telephone at Gizo police station said up to eight people had been killed - including a man, a woman and six children - but the deaths were unconfirmed. The phone cut out before the man could give his name or where the information about the deaths came from.
Reports of casualties were varied as communications to the area remained patchy.
Julian Mcleod of the National Disaster Management Office in the capital, Honiara, told Sky News only three deaths had been reported, while national police spokesman Mick Spinks told AP there were unconfirmed reports of four deaths.
"Our biggest problem is communications, because most of the high frequency radio system there was submerged," Spinks said.
Another town in Western Province, Munda, was also believed to be badly damaged, officials and the national broadcaster said, but details were not immediately confirmed.
Solomon Islands deputy police commissioner Peter Marshall said a plane would fly over the devastated area later Monday to assess damage.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck about 10 kilometers (6 miles) beneath the sea floor about 350 kilometers (215 miles) northwest of Honiara at 7:39 a.m. (20:39 GMT Sunday).
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning bulletin for the Solomon Islands and neighboring Papua New Guinea, and a lower-level alert for most South Pacific countries and northeastern Australia. The alert was later lifted.
Peter Barter, a minister in the Papua New Guinea government responsible for Boungainville, said there were no reports of damage in his country so far. He said the sea receded at the town of Rabaul - a possible sign of an incoming tsunami - but that waters had later returned to normal levels.
Australian officials closed beaches along the length of the country's east coast, from near the Great Barrier Reef in the north to Sydney and its famous Bondi beach in the south. Ferry services in the city were canceled.
"We just feel it's best to err on the side of caution," said Warren Young, the chief life guard on the Gold Coast, about 2,200 kilometers (1,370 miles) from the quake's epicenter.
The tsunami appeared to be localized, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center recording a surge of just 15 centimeters (6 inches) in Honiara.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Deli Oso, said the quake was felt in Honiara but no damage was done.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said there was no tsunami threat to Australia's northeast coast, one of the areas listed on the earlier warning.
The Solomon Islands is a poverty-wracked archipelago of more than 200 islands northeast of Australia, with a population of about 552,000 people, that lies on the Pacific Basin's so-called "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines where quakes frequently happen. |
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