Tsunami Spam

Remember Orson Welles and "War of the Worlds"...

(CNN) -- Two large back-to-back earthquakes centered in the region of the Solomon Islands triggered a tsunami warning Sunday for a huge part of the Pacific including Australia and Indonesia.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's Fixed Regional Tsunami Warning also included Papua New Guinea and several other islands in the region.

A watch was issued for some other parts of the Pacific, including New Zealand, the Philippines, American Samoa, Guam, and Fiji.

The U.S. National Weather Service said its West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center issued an advisory for residents along the California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska coast, but it said a damaging tsunami is not expected in that area. That advisory is sent out whenever the PTWC issues a tsunami warning for other regions in the Pacific Basin.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake, magnitude 7.6, took place at 8:40 Coordinated Universal Time (4:40 ET) and was centered 25 miles (45 km) south-southeast of Gizo, New Georgia Islands, and 1330 miles (2145 km) north-northeast of Brisbane, Australia.

The second, nearby just minutes later, had a magnitude 6.7.

Officials in New Zealand and Australia said they had no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

South Pacific quake and tsunami kills 12

Mon Apr 2, 2007 7:46AM BST

By Walter Nalangu

HONIARA (Reuters) - At least 12 people were killed and many more missing after a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck the tiny Solomon Islands, sweeping away entire villages and triggering a Pacific-wide tsunami alert.

The shallow quake, with a magnitude of at least 8.0, levelled buildings and damaged a hospital on Gizo island northwest of the Solomons capital, Honiara, while a tsunami sucked homes into the sea as thousands of panicked residents fled for higher ground.

At least seven people died in Gizo, many trapped in their homes when waves swept through the town. Other bodies could be seen but not reached because of big waves, the government said in a statement.

"The wave was up to 10-metres (32 feet) high in some villages," Solomon Islands' chief government spokesman Alfred Maesulia told Reuters. "Some villages have been entirely washed away."

The quake struck 350 km (220 miles) north-west of Honiara during the morning (2040 GMT on Sunday) and sparked a tsunami alert around the Pacific.

Beaches along Australia's east coast were shut and ferry services halted in Sydney Harbour amid fears of a repeat of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.

The alert was lifted about nine hours later, with damage confined to the immediate area around the quake.
Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said the disaster could have been worse if it had happened only a few hours earlier, in darkness, when more people would have been asleep.

"We are lucky that it happened during the daytime, that the people observed the sea receded as a sign that something was not right," Sogavare told CNN television.

Witnesses described the arriving wave, which Australia's government said also hit the western Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville, as an "extreme tide".

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