TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s meteorological agency issued a tsunami alert for Japan’s Pacific coast, upgrading an earlier advisory stemming from the powerful, magnitude 8.7 quake that hit on Wednesday morning near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
The agency issued an advisory for a tsunami of up to 3 meter (yards) across the Pacific coast of Japan, possibly starting to arrive along the northern Japanese coasts in less than half an hour after the alert.
A tsunami warning also was extended to the U.S. state of Hawaii, with the National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center saying a tsunami from the quake had been generated that could cause damage along the coastlines of all the Hawaiian islands.
“Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property,” the warning stated. The first waves were expected around 7 p.m. local time.
Japan’s meteorological agency said the quake occurred at 8:25 a.m. (2325 GMT Tuesday) and registered a preliminary magnitude of 8.0. The quake was about 250 kilometers (160 miles) away from Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost of the country’s four big islands, and was felt only slightly, according to Japan’s NHK television.
