Warning lifted after Canada quake triggered Hawaii tsunami scare
(CNN) -- A tsunami spawned by an earthquake in Canada sent waves and fear to Hawaii, thousands of miles away, where some residents scrambled to higher land and prepared for a fierce impact.
But by 1 a.m. in Hawaii
(7 a.m. ET), a tsunami warning for Hawaii was canceled, and a tsunami
advisory was put in its place. An advisory indicates that strong
currents or waves that are dangerous to those in or very near the water
are expected, but significant inundation is not.
Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle said people who had evacuated can return to their homes. CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now reported that that's the case for coastal residents in various parts of the state.
Earlier, local television
showed images of bumper-to-bumper traffic on roads leading from the
coast to higher ground. About 80,000 people live in evacuation zones on
the island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located.
The first waves to hit
Honolulu didn't seem much stronger than usual. But scientists warned
people not to be fooled by the initial waves, which often aren't the
biggest.
"It's not just one wave,
it's a succession of waves," Gerard Fryer, senior geophysicist at the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, told reporters. He said the tsunami
could last for hours.
Hawaii State Civil
Defense said Wailoa Harbor, on the Big Island, at one point reported a
series of 4-foot waves every six minutes.
Even a 3-foot wave could flood several blocks from the shore, Fryer said.
"A 3-foot wave coming
into a narrow channel can rise up into a vertical wall, and that will
knock you down and beat you up and maybe drown you," he said.
But he noted that the
tsunami will not be as significant as the devastating quake and tsunami
that killed thousands in Japan in March 2011.
The tsunami warning had
come at an unfortunate time -- when thousands of revelers packed streets
in Honolulu late Saturday for the annual Hallowbaloo festival.
Many fled amid the warnings.
"You can't really tell
which wave is going to be packing the most punch, and sometimes it's the
second, third, or even the last one," Carlisle said, while the tsunami
warning was in effect. "So it's sort of a train wreck coming through,
slowly but surely, and you have to make sure that you have a very good
idea that the worst is by you before you start sending people back into
the areas that could be affected."
Even Hawaiians accustomed to tsunami warnings spared no effort in bracing for the worst.
Honolulu resident
Victoria Shioi filled her bathtub with water, set her refrigerator to
the coldest setting and gathered candles in case of water or power
outages.
"Also backed up my computer and put the external (hard drive) in the waterproof safe," Shioi said.
The tsunami was spawned by a sizable earthquake in western British Columbia, prompting a local tsunami warning.
"A (magnitude) 7.7 is a
big, hefty earthquake -- not something you can ignore," Fryer said. "It
definitely would have done some damage if it had been under a city."
Instead, the quake
struck about 139 kilometers (86 miles) south of Masset on British
Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands. No major damage was reported.
The Alaska Tsunami
Warning Center issued a warning for western British Columbia from
Vancouver to the southern panhandle of Alaska.
Canadians as far away as Prince Rupert, on mainland British Columbia, felt the quake.
Tanya Simonds said she felt as if her house was "sliding back and forth on mud," but didn't see any damage from the tremor.
Shawn Martin was at a movie theater when the quake struck.
"It just felt like the seats were moving. It felt like someone was kicking your seat," he said.
Martin said more than hundred cars headed toward a popular intersection in the city known for its higher ground.
Thousands of miles across the Pacific, residents in Hawaii did the same.
"The rest of the Pacific does not have to worry, but Hawaii does," Fryer said.
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