Japan’s weather office has lifted a tsunami advisory imposed a day earlier, becoming one of the last countries to rescind the emergency order after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded hit Russia’s Far East.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a statement lifting the advisory on Thursday, as fears of a deadly disaster subsided across the Pacific, including the United States’s West Coast and several Latin American countries, allowing millions to return to their homes.
Storm surges of up to 4 metres (12 feet) were predicted for some parts of the Pacific, after the magnitude 8.8 quake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday. Ultimately, the tsunamis produced by the earthquake were weaker than had been feared.
“There is currently no coastal area for which tsunami warnings or advisories are in force,” the Japanese agency announced on Thursday afternoon (07:45 GMT).
Almost two million people had been ordered to higher ground in Japan before the warnings were downgraded to an advisory for large stretches of its Pacific coast, with waves up to 0.7 metres still being observed earlier on Thursday.
The highest recorded waves of about 1.3 metres were observed in Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, on Wednesday afternoon, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.
The only reported death from the tsunamis was a woman killed when her car fell off a cliff in Japan as she tried to escape on Wednesday, Japanese media reported.
Separately, 11 people were taken to hospital after developing symptoms of heatstroke while taking shelter in hot weather, with temperatures rising to about 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places.
In Chile, the country’s disaster response agency Senapred has downgraded its warning from “alert” to “state of precaution” in at least four areas early on Thursday.
The country had conducted what the interior ministry said was “perhaps the most massive evacuation ever carried out in our country” with 1.4 million people ordered to high ground after the earthquake on Wednesday.
Earlier, Chilean authorities reported no damage or victims and registered waves of just 60 centimetres (two feet) on the country’s north coast.
In the Galapagos Islands, where waves of up to three metres were expected, there was relief as the Ecuadorian Navy’s oceanographic institute said the danger had passed.
Residents reported the sea level falling and then rising suddenly, a phenomenon which is commonly seen with the arrival of a tsunami.
But a surge of just over a metre was reported, causing no damage.
In the US, the country’s National Weather Service originally issued tsunami “warnings” for Hawaii, Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and parts of California, as well as lower-level tsunami advisories for parts of Washington and Oregon. A less serious tsunami watch was in place for the entire US West Coast.
However, the threat level for Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands was later downgraded from a warning to an advisory, meaning that people who had evacuated can now return to their homes.
The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged the local fishing plant, officials said.
Russian state television footage showed buildings and debris swept into the sea.
The surge of water reached as far as the town’s World War II monument about 400 metres from the shoreline, said Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov.
Russian scientists reported that the Klyuchevskoy volcano erupted shortly after the earthquake.
Wednesday’s quake was the strongest in the Kamchatka region since 1952, the regional seismic monitoring service said, warning of aftershocks of up to a magnitude of 7.5.
The US Geological Survey said the quake was one of the 10 strongest tremors recorded since 1900.
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