Communities in California and other parts of the western United States were on alert Saturday after an undersea volcano erupted in the South Pacific, leading to powerful surges of water that inundated harbors and low-lying areas and left at least six people needing rescue.
Early reports suggested that the damage had been limited and primarily concentrated along the central coast of California, where some parking lots, low-lying roads and beach trails had been flooded, meteorologists from the National Weather Service and the National Tsunami Warning Center said.
Four people in San Mateo County, south of San Francisco, were swept into the water, and two were taken to a hospital, a spokeswoman from the local fire department said.
Two surfers were also rescued from the powerful waves at a beach in San Francisco, said a spokesman from the city’s fire department, adding that one of the surfers’ boards had been snapped by the waves. Several others, he said, were also helped to safety from surging water.
Port San Luis experienced some of the highest waves, at 4 feet 3 inches, said Dave Snider, the tsunami warning coordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Centre in Palmer, Alaska. The service had not “seen anything that looks like tremendous inundation,” he said, adding that he had not heard reports of damage from Oregon or Washington State.
Water surged into Santa Cruz Harbor, causing some boat damage and submerging the parking lot, and people were evacuated from the docks, sidewalks and nearby stores. “We’ve literally seen cars afloat,” said Brian Garcia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The effects in other parts of the United States were less severe.
In Alaska, the eruption was heard around 3:30 a.m., 6,000 miles from the volcano, the National Weather Service for the Alaska region said on Twitter.
By Saturday afternoon, the service had canceled the tsunami advisory for all areas of the Gulf, though it remained in effect for the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutians until further notice. Parts of the Aleutian Islands had experienced waves more than three feet high, but the service had not received any reports of damage, said Pam Szatanek, a meteorologist with the service.
“It’s not uncommon for Alaska to get tsunamis from places that are far away in the pacific,” Ms. Szatanek said.
In Hawaii, there was no reported damage and only minor flooding throughout the islands, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre posted on Twitter. At 7:52 a.m. local time, the center lifted the tsunami advisory, adding that small sea level changes and strong or unusual currents “may persist for several additional hours.”
A tsunami surge may not appear as a large wave, but rather involves a fast and constant flow of water to low-lying areas over tens of minutes.
“It becomes very dangerous because there’s so much water and it’s moving so fast; you can’t outrun it, and you can’t outswim it,” said Mr. Garcia, the meteorologist.
The tsunami was expected to continue to affect the coast and bays for the remainder of the day, with the National Weather Service advising anyone in the coastal areas of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska to “move off the beach and out of harbors and marinas.”
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January 16, 2022 at 01:35PM
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