Tsunami Update

On Saturday morning a massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Chile killing hundreds of people, causing widespread damage in the South American country and producing a tsunami that for a time threatened Hawaii and caused minor concern along the Southern California coast.

Before 3:30 a.m. Saturday a tsunami advisory for Southern California was issued, but despite reports of possible surges of six-to-eight feet the low-level warning was later lifted with no major incident along our coast.

Three-foot high waves were reported along the Orange County coast about 13 hours after the earthquake. These are the largest waves resulting from a tsunami to occur along the Orange County coast since the 1964 Alaskan earthquake.

For precautionary measures beach areas along the coast were closed for a short time.

The only notable event was some rip currents in Long Beach, which threw a boat on to shore.

Also in Ventura a small dock was ripped from its post.

In Hawaii a tsunami warning was issued and massive evacuations were ordered, but aside from a few swells the expected arrival of the tsunami was rather uneventful.

In Central and Northern California a tsunami advisory still remains in effect until Saturday evening.

Meanwhile Japan is preparing and expecting a ten-foot surge along their northern coast expected to strike late Saturday evening.