HONIARA – Huge waves churned by a massive earthquake crashed ashore in the Solomon Islands yesterday, wiping away entire villages and triggering a tsunami alert from Australia to Hawaii, officials said.
At least 13 people were reported killed and the toll was expected to rise. Julian Makaa, spokesman for the Solomons National Disaster Management Office, said numerous villages in the South Pacific nation’s remote west were reporting that people were swept away as waves plowed through their communities.The reports remained sketchy because communications were reduced in many cases to scratchy two-way radio lines, and emergency officials struggled to reach outlying areas.Alfred Maesulia, the information director in Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s office, said late yesterday that 13 people had been killed and an unknown number remained missing.”Some people were seen floating on the sea during the big waves but it was very difficult to go near them,” Maesulia told The Associated Press.Of the death toll, he said: “The number at the moment is 13.It’s possible that number will increase, maybe double up or even more.”The Pacific region went on high alert for several hours after the magnitude-8 quake struck between the islands of Bougainville and New Georgia, with Sydney’s famous Bondi among beaches closed more than 2 000 kilometres away in Australia.But the region-wide warnings were downgraded for areas outside the Solomons as the danger period passed.The bone-rattling quake struck shortly after 20h39 GMT on Sunday just 10 kilometres beneath the sea floor about 350 kilometres northwest of the Solomons capital, Honiara, the US Geological Survey said.”It was just a noise like an underground explosion,” said Dorothy Parkinson, a Gizo resident.”The wave came almost instantaneously.Everything that was standing is flattened.”Within five minutes of the quake, waves between three metres and five metres high roared ashore and went up to a kilometre inland, inundating buildings and sending thousands fleeing for higher ground, witnesses said.Nampa-APJulian Makaa, spokesman for the Solomons National Disaster Management Office, said numerous villages in the South Pacific nation’s remote west were reporting that people were swept away as waves plowed through their communities.The reports remained sketchy because communications were reduced in many cases to scratchy two-way radio lines, and emergency officials struggled to reach outlying areas.Alfred Maesulia, the information director in Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s office, said late yesterday that 13 people had been killed and an unknown number remained missing.”Some people were seen floating on the sea during the big waves but it was very difficult to go near them,” Maesulia told The Associated Press.Of the death toll, he said: “The number at the moment is 13.It’s possible that number will increase, maybe double up or even more.”The Pacific region went on high alert for several hours after the magnitude-8 quake struck between the islands of Bougainville and New Georgia, with Sydney’s famous Bondi among beaches closed more than 2 000 kilometres away in Australia.But the region-wide warnings were downgraded for areas outside the Solomons as the danger period passed.The bone-rattling quake struck shortly after 20h39 GMT on Sunday just 10 kilometres beneath the sea floor about 350 kilometres northwest of the Solomons capital, Honiara, the US Geological Survey said.”It was just a noise like an underground explosion,” said Dorothy Parkinson, a Gizo resident.”The wave came almost instantaneously.Everything that was standing is flattened.”Within five minutes of the quake, waves between three metres and five metres high roared ashore and went up to a kilometre inland, inundating buildings and sending thousands fleeing for higher ground, witnesses said.Nampa-AP
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