Tsunami Fears Ease After Quake

A massive magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the ocean bed near the South Pacific island nation of Tonga, but U.S. officials lifted initial warnings of a possible tsunami as far away as New Zealand.

No giant waves hit Tonga, and authorities in New Zealand after initially going on high alert said there was no danger of a damaging wave slamming into the New Zealand east coast.

Sergeant James Tasmania of Gisborne police said civil defense authorities such as police had been put on "high alert," but he added that "none of the (ocean) monitoring buoys have reported anything significant."

In the Tongan capital, the coastal city of Nuku'alofa, there were no signs of a tsunami or major damage caused by the giant quake.

A reporter who drove through the city saw no major building damage, but said that inside buildings he could see bookshelves that toppled over. Power in the city was restored some two hours after the quake.

Speaking about the time a wave was forecast to reach the islands, police spokesman Mesake Koroi in Fiji's capital, Suva, said there had been no immediate reports of a tsunami.

A police officer in Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, said there were no immediate reports of damage or a tsunami.

Another officer in Neiafu, 180 miles to the north, said the quake was felt for about 90 seconds.

"It was strong but not long," duty constable Salesi Baongo said.

Asked whether the tsunami warning had been received, Baongo said, "No, we haven't heard about it."

Mary Fonua, a publisher in Nuku'alofa, said it was the most powerful quake she had felt in 27 years in Tonga.

"It was rocking and rolling the floor was shaking, the whole family stood in the doorway and we heard crockery breaking in the kitchen and books fell from the shelves," she said.

"It's very dark and the power went off during the quake ... staff are reporting big flashes as the electricity grid went down during the shake and lines were broken," she added.

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.

The U.S. National Weather Service warned that a tsunami could strike Fiji as soon as 1:13 p.m. EDT Wednesday and New Zealand by 2:21 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

Elanor Vuedi from the Sheraton resort in Fiji told CBS Radio News the area has been experiencing light thunderstorms and some rain, but that by around 1 p.m. she hadn't heard anything about a tsunami warning.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it was not known whether the quake generated a potentially deadly giant wave. It issued the warning for Tonga, Niue, American Samoa, Samoa, Wallis-Futuna, Fiji.

"There's a chance that there could be a tsunami," said Barry Hirshorn, a geophysicist at the Tsunami Warning Center. "But in reality, there's not much danger except for areas close to the earthquake."

The Tsunami Warning Center's instruments detected that there could be small tsunamis with half-meter waves in the areas close to the earthquake, Hirshorn said.

"We're not observing much of a tsunami," he said. "Strictly speaking, it's not very devastating."

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 earthquake struck early Thursday 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 — a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti — has a population of about 108,000 and an economy dependent on pumpkin and vanilla exports, fishing, foreign aid and remittances from Tongans abroad.

Now the last monarchy in the Pacific, Tonga has been a Polynesian kingdom and a protectorate of Britain, from which it acquired independence in 1970.

It is ruled by 87-year-old King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, who is ailing.

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.

Fiji, a South Pacific country made up of more than 300 islands, a third of which are inhabited, is regularly rattled by earthquakes, but few cause any damage or casualties.