Keystone-SDA
A tsunami in the Pacific Ocean provoked floods in Severo-Kourilsk on Wednesday in the north of the Russian Kourile archipelago, the ministry of emergency situations announced.
(Keystone-ATS) “The tsunami has flooded parts of the severo-Kourilsk port city (…) The population has been evacuated,” the ministry wrote in a statement. Videos published on social networks have shown buildings invaded by water in this city of around 2,000 inhabitants.
In addition, several people were injured Wednesday in the Kamthatka peninsula, on the Russian Pacific Coast, during the powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.7 which occurred near the coast and caused a tsunami, announced the Russian state agency Tass, citing the regional health authorities.
The 8.7 magnitude earthquake has been the most powerful in the region since 1952, the regional seismology service said, warning of high replicas to come.
“The strongest earthquake since 1952 has just occurred in the seismic zone of Kamthatka (…) given the scale of the event, strong replicas of up to 7.5 are expected,” the geophysical service of Kamchatka wrote on Telegram.
“I urge everyone to stay far from the coast in areas threatened by the tsunami and listen to the announcements by loudspeaker,” the governor of Kamchatka wrote on Telegram Vladimir Solodov.
The Fukushima power plant evacuated
In Japan, the employees present at the Fukushima nuclear power plant (EST), accidental in 2011, were evacuated Wednesday following the tsunami alert issued after a powerful earthquake off the Russian coast, the site operator announced.
“We have evacuated all the workers and our employees,” a spokesperson for Tepco told AFP, adding that “no anomaly has been observed” on the site. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had been devastated by an earthquake and a historic tsunami in March 2011, and is being dismantled.
A first tsunami caused by the powerful earthquake was observed in northern Japan, with a height of around 30 centimeters, reported the NHK television channel.
In the wake of this tsunami, which struck the island of Hokkaido (North), the NHK warned that the following tsunamis could be much higher. The Japanese meteorological agency had previously announced that waves of up to 3 meters were expected along the northern and east coast of Japan, to the south of Osaka.
Mexico alert
The Mexican government gave the civil protection on Wednesday to maintain the population distant from the Pacific coast.
The Mexico Navy said it expected, in a report, “strong currents at the entrance to the ports”, from the State of Basse-California (North-West) to Chiapas (South), on the west coast of the country.