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Residents of the Tonga Islands were fleeing to the heights on Saturday in the face of the tsunami caused by a new massive eruption – heard up to hundreds of kilometers – of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, which also prompted tsunami warnings in the United States. States and Chile. “A 1.20 meter tsunami was observed in Nuku’alofa”, the capital of Tonga, announced the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The previous tsunami had not exceeded 30 centimeters, and the alert had just been lifted when the volcano erupted again.
The eruption lasted eight minutes, and was so loud it was heard “like a sound of distant thunder” on the Fiji Islands, more than 800 kilometers away, Fiji officials said. Victorina Kioa from the Tonga Archipelago Utilities Commission called on people to “keep away from all threatened places, i.e. beaches, reefs and all flat coasts”. The king of Tonga, Tupou VI, was evacuated from the royal palace of Nuku’alofa and taken to a villa far from the coast. And the authorities have also advised the general population to stay indoors as much as possible, to wear masks if they have to go out and to protect all water supplies.
Tonga’s Hunga Tonga volcano just had one of the most violent volcano eruptions ever captured on satellite. https://t.co/M2D2j52gNn
Tsunami warnings have also been issued for Fiji and Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. The Australian authorities have also warned the population of Sydney and its region, New South Wales, of “to get out of the water, and to move away from the edge of the water”. In Chile, the National Emergency Office of Chile has warned of the possibility that a “minor tsunami” reaches Easter Island and other Chilean archipelagos. “As a precautionary measure, in the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, the San Felix Islands, Easter Island and Chilean Antarctica, it is requested, due to the eruption of a volcano in the Tonga Islands, to leave the beach areas where a minor tsunami could occur », the organization said.
“Leave the beaches”
In the United States, tsunami warnings have been issued for the West Coast of the country, Hawaii having already been affected by “minor flooding”. “Leave the beaches, ports and marinas” in the areas concerned, recommends the United States Meteorological Service, which specifies with ” relief “ that the US islands of Hawaii reported no damage and suffered only minor flooding.
The states of California, Oregon and Washington could be affected, as well as Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia, specifies the weather service: “The main impacts expected are strong rip currents and flooding of coasts and low-lying areas. »
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