Hawaii and parts of the Northern California coast — from Cape Mendocino to the Oregon border — were placed under a tsunami warning and residents were told to evacuate coastal areas and designated evacuation zones Tuesday evening while the rest of California remained under a tsunami advisory following an 8.8 magnitude quake in Russia.
Areas under a warning could face dangerous coastal flooding and powerful currents and people should evacuate to higher grounds or inland. Areas under an advisory can expect strong currents and dangerous waves and people should stay away from beaches and the water. The Bay Area is not expected to be seriously impacted by the water surge.
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- Map of California tsunami hazard zones: Look up your address
The estimated potential arrival time in Hawaii of the first tsunami wave was 10:17 p.m. Pacific time or 7:17 p.m. Hawaii time. This was the first tsunami warning for Hawaii since October 2012. The estimated time of arrival for Crescent City is 11:50 p.m. local time. View a livestream of Hawaii and the tsunami impact on Hawaii News Now.
The quake struck east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city on the Pacific coast of Russia, at 4:24 p.m. Pacific time.
Cresent City sounds siren, recommends evacuation of RV park
“You are hearing a Tsunami Siren. We are under a Tsunami Warning. Please stay away from beaches and waterways. A predicted wave may hit at 11:55 pm. We are waiting on additional information about any level of evacuation.” Crescent City officials also recommended that residents of the Lighthouse Cove RV Park evacuate. “We have secured temporary locations of Walmart, Home Depot and Del Norte High School parking lots. Please drive safely.”
Coastal town of Orick evacuates campers along its beach
The tiny coastal town of Orick, situated in the redwood forest along the Humboldt Coast north of Eureka, does not have a working tsunami siren, so members of the town’s volunteer fire department drove the streets Tuesday evening warning the town’s 200 residents over a loudspeaker, according to Orick Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steven Baker. “We sent out the warning, but if it hits Hawaii bad we’ll be getting everybody out of town,” Baker said. As of Tuesday at 10 p.m. the town wasn’t under an evacuation order, but Baker said the fire brigade took the precaution of evacuating campers and truck drivers at a local sand beach just to be safe.
First waves of tsunami reach Hawaii
The first edges of the tsunami made landfall in the Hawaiian islands, with the tide rising at Oahu’s Hanalei Bay by about a foot and a half and then dropping below the normal tide level by a food across a span of 15 minutes, with additional waves expected to hit the islands over several hours through the night…