SAN FRANCISCO/QUITO, (Reuters) – Thousands of people fled their homes along the Pacific coast of North and South America yesterday as a tsunami triggered by Japan’s massive earthquake reached the region but appeared to spare it from major damage.
The giant wall of water lost much of its energy as it roared thousands of miles (km) across the Pacific Ocean, but many governments took no chances, ordering large-scale evacuations of coastal areas, ports and refineries.
The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center downgraded the situation in California from a tsunami “warning” to an “advisory,” said California Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jordan Scott.
“Things seem to be settling down at the moment,” he said.
Scott added some areas were still experiencing surge activity and that residents should stay out of places deemed off limits by emergency personnel.
With the tsunami still poised to strike South America’s coastline, Chile evacuated thousands from flood-prone areas and Peru took similar measures, also closing beaches. Chile was hit by a magnitude 8.8 quake and ensuing tsunamis a year ago that killed more than 500 people.
The waves are expected to reach mainland Chile around midnight local time (0300 GMT today). The government also upgraded the tsunami alert for Chile’s remote Easter Island. But an hour after the high waves were due to roll in, there was still no sign of them, the island’s governor said.
Earlier in the day, waves crashing ashore were larger than normal in California and Mexico, but only the town of Crescent City, near the California border with Oregon, and Santa Cruz south of San Francisco suffered any real damage.
About 35 boats and most of the harbor docks were damaged in Crescent City, where waves were more than 6 feet (2 metres), while Santa Cruz sustained about $2 million in damages to docks and vessels, emergency management officials said.
Rescue services were searching for a 25-year-old man who was swept out to sea while standing on a sandbar at the mouth of the Klamath River in California.
Thousands of residents were evacuated along the California coast, including 6,000 near Santa Cruz, before the tsunami made landfall, said Jordan Scott, spokesman for the California Emergency Management Agency.
