Pacific-wide tsunami warning lifted

"We expected waves to be 50% bigger in Hawaii. We'll be looking at that."

By AP, JPOST.COM STAFF
collapsed highway near Santiago (photo credit: AP)
collapsed highway near Santiago
(photo credit: AP)
The tsunami from Chile's deadly earthquake hit Japan's main islands and the shores of Russia on Sunday, but the smaller-than-expected waves prompted the lifting of a Pacific-wide alert. Hawaii and other Pacific islands were also spared.
In Japan, where hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from shorelines, the biggest wave following the magnitude-8.8 quake off Chile hit the northern island of Hokkaido. There were no immediate reports of damage from the four-foot (1.2-meter) wave, though some piers were briefly flooded.
As it crossed the Pacific, the tsunami dealt populated areas — including the US state of Hawaii — only a glancing blow.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a warning for 53 nations and territories, but lifted it Sunday, though some countries were keeping their own watches in place as a precaution.
The tsunami raised fears the Pacific could fall victim to the type of devastating waves that killed 230,000 people in the Indian Ocean in 2004 the morning after Christmas. During that disaster, there was little-to-no warning and much confusion about the impending waves.
Officials said the opposite occurred after the Chile quake: They overstated their predictions of the size of the waves and the threat.
"We expected the waves to be bigger in Hawaii, maybe about 50 percentbigger than they actually were," said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist forthe warning center. "We'll be looking at that."
Japan, fearing the tsunami could gain force as it moved closer, put allof its eastern coastline on tsunami alert and ordered hundreds ofthousands of residents in low-lying areas to seek higher ground aswaves generated by the Chilean earthquake raced across the Pacific athundreds of miles (kilometers) per hour.
In related news, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor onSunday morning said that the Israeli Embassy in Santiago did not findany names of Israelis in the lists of of casualties and fatalitiesreleased by authorities in Chile. Channel 2 reported that some 20Israelis currently in Chile had not yet been accounted for after thequake. Chile is a popular travel destination for Israelis travelingafter their army service.