Tsunami alert cancelled for Kuriles

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, March 12 (Itar-Tass) -- The tsunami alert is
cancelled for all the Southern Kuriles, the head of the Russian
Emergencies Ministry's Sakhalin regional department, Taimuraz Kasayev,
told a press conference.
The tsunami alert was called for all the Kuril Islands on March 11
after the devastating earthquake in Japan.
As a result of the calculations, it was determined that there was a
tsunami threat for 4 residential localities - the city of Yuzhno-Kurilsk
of 6,465 people, the village of Malokurilskoye of 2,281 people, the
village of Burevestnik (188 people) and the city of Severo-Kurilsk (2,389
people). The estimated time for the tsunami waves to Malokurilsk was one
hour (after the earthquake in Japan) and two hours for the rest
localities. The tsunami alert was declared at 15:46 Sakhalin Time (08:46
Moscow time). The population was informed immediately. The Emergencies
Ministry's forces evacuated 11,000 people to safe places on hills. Sixty
eight ships that were in the Sea of Okhotsk were warned about the danger.
Seven ships left ports.
Rescuers brought about 250 people, anglers who fished from ice on the
Sakhalin Island coast, to safe places, as a tsunami wave could destroy the
ice fields.
According to Kasayev, when the tsunami activity weakened, people could
return home, except for 110 people in Yuzhno-Kurilsk. The height of waves,
according to the Emergencies Ministry's Sakhalin regional department, on
the Kuriles was one and a half to three metres.
Kasayev appraised the emergencies ministry work as satisfactory on the
whole and noted that in the last 3 years the tsunami warning system was
modernised and the warning time was shortened by half.
The official commented on the situation in the Sakhalin region in
connection with the accident at a nuclear power plant in Japan. Radiation
monitoring in the region is increased, and the measurements are taken more
frequently. Currently, the radiation background in the island region
remains normal. The seismic activity in Japan did not affect the activity
of the Kuril volcanoes.
According to Kasayev, there was no panic among the population, and
nothing is destroyed. He believes that this was due to the fact that in
recent years emergencies ministry training intensified with the population
and authorities for actions during tsunami. "It added confidence to us,"
he said. Safe places for people were previously designated. On all the
four islands, bases of reserves -- tents, sleeping bags, fuel, diesel
generators and medicines - have been set up. The stock is stored up for
300 people for 20 days. On Sakhalin Island, a base is also set up to have
stores for 3,000 people for 20 days. The reserves can be promptly
delivered from there anywhere in the Sakhalin Region.
According to reports from Vladivostok as of Saturday morning, a
residual tsunami wave after the powerful earthquake in Japan has reached
the Primorsky Territory. The water rose 32 cm in the village of Rudnaya
Pristan and 11 cm in the village of Preobrazheniye, the Sakhalin
hydro-meteorological service reported.
Last time, a tsunami wave came to Primorye on July 13, 1993, after a
strong earthquake in the Sea of Japan. An hour after an underground
tremour, 2.5-3.5-m tsunami waves reached the villages of Moryak-Rybolov,
Kamenka, Plastun and Rudnaya Pristan. In Nakhodka, a tsunami alert was
called. Residents of low areas of the city, about 30,000 people, fled to
hills and remained there for the night until the alert was cancelled.
On March 11, after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan, a
three-metre tsunami wave came to the Kuril Islands to the village of
Malokurilskoye. It was 185 cm high in the city of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, 51cm in
the city of Kurilsk and about two metres in the village of Burevestnik. On
Sakhalin, a 16-cm residual tsunami wave came to the village of
Starodubskoye, and an 11-cm wave on Cape Krilkon. On the Komandorskiye
(Commander) Islands, the water rose 24 cm in the village of Nikolskoye,
and 13 cm in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
No one of the residential sites on Russia's Pacific coast was affected
by the Japanese earthquake and the following tsunami wave. There were no
damage nor casualties among the population, reported the Far Eastern
regional emergencies centre.