Country after country has lifted or downgraded warnings, telling coastal residents they can return
Tsunami warnings were lifted across the Pacific rim on Wednesday, allowing millions of temporary evacuees to return home after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded hit off the coast Russia.
The 8.8-magnitude quake rattled Russia’s sparsely populated Kamchatka peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings and evacuations from Japan to the United States to Ecuador.
Storm surges of up to four metres (12 feet) were predicted for some parts of the Pacific, after the shallow quake struck on Wednesday morning.
The tsunamis caused widespread disruption. Peru closed 65 of its 121 Pacific ports and authorities on Maui cancelled flights to and from the Hawaiian island. But fears of a catastrophe were not realised, with country after country lifting or downgrading warnings and telling coastal residents they could return.
