Pacific tsunami alert: What we know about the situation in French Polynesia
Recap: A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Tuesday, triggering alerts across the Pacific, including French Polynesia. The first waves hit the Marquesas Islands, but authorities have since lifted the alert.
Tsunami monitoring and prevention instruments installed at the port of Hakahau, capital of the island of Ua Pou in the Marquesas archipelago, in French Polynesia on November 13, 2023. SYLVAIN LEFEVRE / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
An 8.8 magnitude earthquake , the most powerful in the region in nearly 73 years, struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Tuesday, July 29, prompting tsunami warnings across the Pacific and evacuations from Hawaii to Japan. The first waves hit Polynesia, but the warning has been lifted. Here's what we know.
• Alert lifted by the authoritiesThe first waves hit the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, but the alert was lifted by the authorities several hours after the powerful earthquake struck the Pacific off the coast of Russia.
Several waves up to 1.5 metres high began to hit the island of Nuku Hiva (population 3,000) between 2:00 and 5:00 a.m. local time, in the Marquesas archipelago, the Polynesian High Commission said in its latest information briefing.
"We had no damage, no casualties and good organization thanks to the effective activation of the safeguard plans," Anny Pietri, head of the Marquesas subdivision, stressed to AFP on the spot after a meeting with the town halls of the three most affected islands, where 700 of the 6,119 inhabitants had been brought to safety. "They followed the instructions well," she said.
Since these first impacts of the ocean wave, the Geophysics Laboratory (LDG) in the Marquesas Islands has observed a "reduction in oscillations" , which justifies "the lifting of the alert on land" , the High Commission indicated in a press release.
"The population can return to their usual place of residence, while avoiding the coasts as well as rivers and valleys, and exercising caution," stressed the State representative on the archipelago, who nevertheless maintains the ban on nautical activities in the Marquesas.
• Several people evacuated, no damage at this stageAt this stage, no major damage has been reported in the archipelago. Residents in the threatened areas had been warned in advance and were able to evacuate their homes.
The threatened population has been "taken to safety in predetermined retreat locations, and is preparing to spend the night in shelter," said Xavier Marotel, Secretary General of the High Commission, during a press conference broadcast live on social media. On Franceinfo, Xavier Marotel added that a crisis unit has been opened to "manage operations to shelter populations, particularly in the Marquesas Islands archipelago."
"We are seeing a phenomenon that will take place in the middle of the night and which could last 4 to 6 hours. There may be a second, or even a third wave. This is a classic phenomenon, so we must take shelter for the long term and not think that after the first wave, it's over," he warned.
• Macron calls for “vigilance”"A tsunami is coming to French Polynesia. All government services are mobilized to protect our fellow citizens," wrote Emmanuel Macron in a message posted on the social network X. Before adding: "I call for vigilance: follow the instructions of the local authorities. All my support to the Marquesans and all our compatriots in the Pacific."
"These are situations that are unfortunately already known. There was already a similar wave in 2015 without human loss, and there was an identical exercise - they are regular - in the Marquesas Islands six weeks ago, so the population is prepared with the instructions, the reflexes that have been acquired," the Minister of Overseas Territories, Manuel Valls, indicated on BFMTV.
Still, "of course there is concern," he added. "One thing is the exercises. The other thing is reality."
Other members of the government have attempted to reassure. Like the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, who stated on the social network X: "Our armed forces in French Polynesia are on alert as a precautionary measure, to be able to assist our fellow citizens and government services in possible search and rescue operations or medical evacuations."
• Alerts across the PacificAccording to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake occurred around 23:24 GMT on Tuesday at a depth of 20.7 km, 126 km off the coast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the capital of this sparsely populated region in the Russian Far East.
In the port of Severo-Kurilsk, in the north of Russia's Kuril Islands, several successive tsunamis submerged the streets, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. One of these waves, in Elizovsky in the Kamchatka district, reached between three and four meters, according to a local media outlet. The district mayor, Alexander Ovsiannikov, said that "everyone" had been evacuated. A state of emergency has been declared in the district.
In Japan, live television footage showed people evacuating by car or on foot to higher ground, including on the northern island of Hokkaido. A 1.30-meter tsunami hit a port in Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan at 1:52 p.m. (0452 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. However, the agency downgraded tsunami warnings for most of the archipelago on Wednesday, maintaining them only in the north.
China also issued a tsunami warning for several areas along its coast. The Philippines also urged residents along the east coast to move inland and advised fishermen already at sea to stay offshore in deep waters.
On the other side of the Pacific, Peru and Mexico have also declared tsunami alerts, as have Colombia and Ecuador, which have ordered evacuations, including in ports in the Galapagos archipelago. Tsunamis of 1 to 3 meters are also possible in Chile and Costa Rica.
The United States has issued a series of alerts of varying levels along the North American west coast from Alaska to the entire Californian coast.
By News Service (with AFP)
Le Nouvel Observateur
