China’s eastern coast braced for rising waves on Wednesday after authorities issued a tsunami warning in the wake of a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula earlier in the day.
The quake, one of the strongest ever recorded, hit at a depth of 20.7km and was centred about 119km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, seismological agencies confirmed.
China’s Tsunami Warning Centre said waves between 30cm and one metre were expected to reach parts of the country’s eastern coastline by evening, including densely populated regions such as Shanghai.
The natural resources ministry raised a “yellow tsunami alert”, signalling moderate risk, and cautioned people in affected areas to avoid beaches, harbours, and low-lying coastal districts through the evening.
The alert for Shanghai and Zhejiang was lifted in the afternoon, however.
Emergency services were deployed in anticipation of potential flooding and to assist with possible evacuations. Local authorities issued instructions urging people to move to higher ground while maritime operations in some ports were temporarily suspended.
No casualties or significant property damage had been reported in China as of late Wednesday morning.
The tsunami threat came the same day as Typhoon Co-May made landfall in Zhejiang province at around 4:30am local time, delivering strong winds of up to 83kmph and torrential rain.
Authorities had already relocated more than 280,000 people in Shanghai and surrounding regions. Hundreds of flights and ferry operations had been cancelled and speed limits imposed across roads and railways.
Ports and public attractions were temporarily shut as Shanghai braced for additional impacts, with forecasters warning of another possible landfall closer to the financial hub later in the day.
The storm brought heavy rainfall and localised flooding to the port city of Zhoushan, prompting emergency management officials to raise the response status to “Level III” as some urban districts and coastal villages saw waterlogging and power outages.
The earthquake also triggered tsunami warnings and precautionary measures in Taiwan as well as the Philippines, Indonesia, and other Pacific Rim nations and territories from Russia to the US and Peru.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said that tsunami waves of up to 3m could reach large coastal areas in the northern Pacific, though initial assessments suggested only small surges outside the epicentral region.
Japan evacuated more than a million residents across 133 municipalities along its Pacific coast as the meteorological agency issued advisories.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said all workers had been evacuated, adding that there were no abnormalities reported so far. The power plant suffered a nuclear meltdown in 2011 following an earthquake and tsunami disaster.
In the US, tsunami warnings and watches were activated for the Hawaiian archipelago, vast stretches of Alaska’s coastline, and the Pacific coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington states. Authorities in Hawaii and Alaska advised residents to take urgent action to protect life and property.
