‘If you wait until you see the tsunami, it will be too late,’ officials warned as waves as high as three metres were initially forecast.
Japan has urged nearly 2 million people to evacuate coastal areas after one of the most powerful earthquakes in decades struck off Russia’s Far East on Wednesday, sending tsunami waves rippling across the Pacific and prompting alerts from Alaska to New Zealand.
The magnitude-8.8 quake, which struck off the Kamchatka peninsula near Petropavlovsk, is among the strongest 10 ever recorded, according to the United States Geological Survey. Tsunami warnings were issued for Japan, Russia’s Kuril Islands, Hawaii and several other Pacific territories.
