Hawaii is bracing itself Saturday for a potentially damaging tsunami, after a massive earthquake off Chile sent waves across the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a tsunami warning one of it’s highest alerts Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is estimating that the damage would be extreme to the coastlines across the Island. A warning was also in effect for Guam, American Samoa and dozens of other Pacific islands. People in Hawaii and surrounding areas such as Waikki will be instructed on evacuation plans, sirens will go off three hours prior to the arrival time.
This is from the NYT:
Geophysicist Victor Sardina said the Hawaii-based center was urging all countries included the warning to take the threat very seriously. “Everybody is under a warning because the wave, we know, is on its way. Everybody is at risk now,” he said in a telephone interview. […]
The center estimates the first tsunami, which is a series of several waves in succession, will hit Hawaii at 11:19 a.m. Hawaii time (4:19 p.m. EST). Sardina said the Hawaiian islands could expect waves of six feet (two meters) in some places. Other estimates have been higher but he could not confirm those were likely.
Sardina said the center was looking at Hilo Bay on Hawaii Island as a worst-case scenario right now.
Here is a map of how the earthquake will spread throughout the ocean:
