Tsunami nips Hawaii shore

HONOLULU — Tsunami waves arrived in Hawaii on Saturday afternoon, as predicted, causing erratic surges in the sea, but the rising water did not appear to cause significant property damage, officials said, and a tsunami warning was canceled. Late Saturday, the waves continued on to Alaska and parts of Asia.

While there were no immediate reports of widespread damage, injuries or deaths in the U.S. or in the Pacific islands, a tsunami that swamped a village on an island off Chile killed at least five people and left 11 missing.

Japan was still bracing fora direct hit today and waves up to 10 feet high. Scientists worried the giant wave could gain strength as it rounds the planet and consolidates, though the first wave to hit Japan’s outlying islands was just 4 inches high.

The tsunami was spawned by a ferocious magnitude-8.8 earthquake in Chile that sent waves barreling north across the Pacific at the speed of a jetliner. But Pacific islands had ample time to prepare because the quake struck several thousand miles away.

By the time the tsunami hit Hawaii, a full 16 hours after the quake, officials had already spent the morning ringing emergency sirens, blaring warnings from airplanes and ordering resi-dents to higher ground.

Waves hit California, but barely registered amid stormy weather. A surfing contest outside San Diego went on as planned.

Despite Internet rumors of significant problems in coastal areas of California, no injuries or major property damage occurred.

It was still possible that the tsunami would gain strength again as it heads to Japan, and nearly 50 countries and island chains remained under tsunami warnings from Antarctica to Russia. That’s what happened in 1960, when a deadly tsunami killed dozens of people in Hilo, Hawaii, then went on to claim some 200 lives in Japan.

Japan and Russia were the only countries left on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center’s watch list, but some countries in Asia and the Pacific - including the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand - said their own warnings would remain in effect as a precaution.

Japan put all of its eastern coastline on alert for a “major” tsunami today and ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in low-lying areas to seek higher ground. It was the first such alert for Japan’s coasts in nearly 20 years.

By early evening, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center canceled its tsunami warning for Hawaii, with the state apparently escaping the roiling waves unscathed.

“We dodged a bullet,” said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the center.

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said no damage has been reported in any county. Tidal surges were observed Saturday along the coasts but did not roar ashore. She called it “a great day now that it’s over.”

The tsunami initially raised fears that the Pacific could fall victim to the type of lethal waves that killed 230,000 people in the Indian Ocean in 2004 the morning after Christmas. During that disaster, there was little to no warning and much confusion about the impending waves.

Officials said the opposite occurred after the Chile quake: They overstated their predictions for the size of the waves and the threat.

“We expected the waves to be bigger in Hawaii, maybe about 50 percent bigger than they actually were,” Fryer said. “We’ll be looking at that.”

The Navy was moving more than a half-dozen vessels to try to avoid damage from the tsunami. A frigate, three destroyers and two smaller vessels were sent out of Pearl Harbor and a cruiser out of Naval Base San Diego, the Navy said.

The tsunami caused a series of surges about 20 minutes apart, and the waves arrived later and smaller than originally predicted. The highest wave at Hilo measured 5.5 feet high, while Maui saw some as high as 6.5 feet.

In Hawaii, water began pulling away from shore off Hilo Bay on the Big Island just before noon, exposing reefs and sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy water offshore.Waves later washed over Coconut Island, a small park off Hilo’s coast.

Officials in Tonga and the Samoas evacuated coastal residents and used radio, television and mobile phone text messages to alert residents.

Sea surges hit 6 1 /2 feet at several places in New Zealand. Waters at Tutukaka, a coastal dive spot near the top of the North Island, looked like a pot boiling with the muddy bottom churning up as sea surges built through the morning, sucking sea levels below low-water marks before surging back.

Island chains closer to the epicenter in Chile appeared to have suffered more damage than ones farther away.

On the island of Robinson Crusoe, a huge tsunami wave flooded the village of San Juan Batista, killing at least five people and leaving 11 missing, said Guillermo de la Masa, head of the government emergency bureau for the Valparaiso region.

He said the huge wavesalso damaged several government buildings on the island.

In French Polynesia, tsunami waves rushed ashore, damaging parts of the coast and tossing around boats. The biggest waves were in Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, where they reached more than 13 feet.

Australia warned of the possibility of dangerous waves, strong ocean currents and flooding from Queensland state in the north to Tasmania in the south. No evacuations were ordered.

A tsunami wave can travel at up to 600 mph, said Jenifer Rhoades, tsunami program manager at the National Weather Service.

Past South American earthquakes have had deadly effects across the Pacific.

A tsunami after a magnitude-9.5 quake that struck Chile in 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded, killed about 140 people in Japan, 61 in Hawaii and 32 in the Philippines. It was about 3.3 feet to 13 feet in height, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.

Information for this article was contributed by Mark Niesse, David Briscoe, Greg Small, Kristen Gelineau, Chris Havlik, Ray Lilley, Eric Talmadge, Alan Clendenning, Tiphaine Issele, Pauline Jelinek and Charmaine Noronha of The Associated Press.