WARNINGS ACROSS THE PACIFIC
Over in Asia, the Philippines’ seismology agency advised people to stay away from beaches in coastal areas facing the Pacific Ocean as these regions are expected to experience tsunami waves of less than 1m in height.
“It may not be the largest of waves, but these can continue for hours and expose people swimming in the waters to danger,” Teresito Bacolcol of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told The Associated Press.
Indonesia’s geophysics agency also issued a warning that tsunami waves of less than 0.5m could reach some coastal cities and towns in the Papua region, North Maluku province and Gorontalo province.
In Taitung in Taiwan, hotel resort worker Wilson Wang, 31, told AFP: “We’ve advised guests to stay safe and not go out, and to avoid going to the coast.”
China’s tsunami warning centre issued an alert for parts of the country’s east coast along Shanghai and Zhejiang provinces. The warning forecasts that waves could reach between 0.3m to 1m.
Shanghai and Zhejiang are already under alert for Typhoon Co-May.
Co-May made landfall in the port city of Zhoushan in Zhejiang province in the early hours of Wednesday with maximum sustained wind speeds near its centre of 23 metres per second.
Forecasters expect Co-May to make another landfall closer to Shanghai later on Wednesday.
China’s National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said the tsunami was expected to have a “disastrous impact” on some parts of China’s coast, including Shanghai and Zhoushan.
Pacific nation Palau, about 800km east of the Philippines, ordered the evacuation of “all areas along the coastline”.
Waves of up to four metres are expected overnight in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia, authorities said in a press statement.
AloJapan.com