Weather Warning

[Irish Beth]

Fiji, New Zealand Get Tsunami Warning After Strong Quake

An earthquake struck early Thursday near the South Pacific nation of Tonga. The U.S. National Weather Service warns that a tsunami could strike Fiji within 30 minutes and New Zealand within 90 minutes.

[Irish Beth]

POSTED: 12:31 pm EDT May 3, 2006
UPDATED: 2:18 pm EDT May 3, 2006

BANGKOK, Thailand -- People in New Zealand and other islands in the South Pacific Ocean are breathing a little easier, after a powerful earthquake prompted fears of a tsunami.

CNN reported just after 2 p.m. EDT that all tsunami warnings have been canceled. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the original warning and the U.S. National Weather Service warned that a tsunami could strike Fiji as soon as 1:13 p.m. EDT and New Zealand by 2:21 p.m. EDT.

Police in New Zealand went briefly to high alert, but officials there and elsewhere said there is now little danger from the quake.

A tsunami advisory was issued for Hawaii, but the warning center said the earthquake, based on historical records, was not sufficient to generate a tsunami damaging to the Pacific coasts of the United States and Canada, and Alaska. Some areas may experience small sea-level changes.

The temblor, classified by the USGS as a "great" quake, struck 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. It occurred 20 miles beneath the sea floor.

Tonga is a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti. It has a population of about 108,000 people.

A publisher in Tonga said it was the most powerful quake she has felt in 27 years. Mary Fonua said the "rocking and rolling" broke crockery in her kitchen and knocked books from shelves.

Power was also knocked off in the island's capital, Nuku'alofa.

A police officer on an island north of the epicenter called the quake "strong but not long" and he said his department hadn't heard about a tsunami warning.

On Dec. 26, 2004, the most powerful earthquake in four decades -- magnitude 9.0 -- ripped apart the Indian Ocean floor off Indonesia's Sumatra island, displacing millions of tons of water and spawning giant waves that sped off in all directions. The tsunami left at least 216,000 people dead or missing in a dozen nations.
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