By – Lawal Sale
One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s sparsely populated Far East early Wednesday, generating tsunamis of up to four meters (12 feet) across the Pacific and sparking evacuations from Hawaii to Japan.
The magnitude 8.8 quake struck at 8:24 a.m. off Petropavlovsk in the Kamchatka peninsula and was one of the 10 largest ever recorded, according to the USGS.
Russian authorities said a tsunami hit and flooded the port town of Severo-Kurilsk, while local media said a wave of between three and four meters high was recorded in the Elizovsky district of Kamchatka.
A video posted on Russian social media appeared to show buildings in the town submerged in seawater. Authorities said the population of around 2,000 people was evacuated.
Several people were injured in Russia by the quake, state media reported, but none of them seriously.
“The walls were shaking,” an Elizovsky resident told the Russian military broadcaster Zvezda.
“It’s good that we packed a suitcase, there was one with water and clothes near the door. We quickly grabbed it and ran out… It was very scary,” she said.
Authorities in Russia’s Sakhalin region declared a state of emergency in the northern Kuril Islands, where tsunami waves have damaged buildings and caused flooding. The mayor of the islands said that “everyone” there had fled to safety.
One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, causing tsunamis of up to four meters across the Pacific and sparking evacuations from Hawaii to Japan.
