1.7 Meter Tsunami Wave Reaches Hawaii After The Russian Kamchatka Earthquake

UNSPLASH/Lawrence Eaton ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - A tsunami wave as high as 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) reached Hawaii after a large earthquake in Kamchatka, Russia.

Coastal residents have previously been asked to find higher ground than buildings, while US Coast Guard ordered ships to leave ports.

Flights from Honolulu airport resumed later, the transport department said. Meanwhile, the main airport in Maui remains closed with passengers taking shelter at the terminal.

It was also reported that a tsunami wave as high as nearly half a meter was observed until California, while a smaller wave reached the British Columbia province in Canada.

An 8.8-scale Richter earthquake off the coast of the Russian Far East Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a tsunami wave as high as 5 meters nearby and triggered evacuation orders to Hawaii and the Pacific on Wednesday, July 30.

The shallow earthquake damaged buildings and injured several people in remote parts of Russia.

Meanwhile, most of Japan's eastern coast that was destroyed by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on the Richter scale in 2011 was ordered to be evacuated.

A resident in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky said the shaking lasted for several minutes.

"I decided to leave the building," said 25-year-old Yaroslav.

"It feels like a wall could collapse at any time. The shock lasted continuously for at least 3 minutes," he added.

A tsunami wave hit parts of Kamchatka, flooding parts of the port and fish processing plant in the city of Severo-Kurilsk, as well as sweeping ships from its moorings.

Verified drone footage shows the entire city's coastline submerged, with tall buildings and several storage facilities surrounded by water, which are seen flowing back into the sea.

"Today's earthquake is serious and the strongest in decades," said Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov.