Tsunami warning lifted

Government seismologists lifted yesterday a tsunami warning in the country’s northern and eastern coastlines that was declared Wednesday night following a strong quake that jolted northern Japan.

Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said the level 2 tsunami alert was cancelled at about 12:30 a.m. when the institute determined that there was no more threat of a tsunami on the country’s coasts.

"People can continue with their normal activities," Solidum said.

The tsunami alert was raised after an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck near Japan, prompting some 20,000 families from the northern coastal towns to flee their homes.

Rumors and miscommunication, however, were to blame as people reported receiving cellphone text messages warning them to abandon their homes because a tsunami was coming.

"At about 1 a.m., they all fled to the hills. We heard that a 40-foot wall of water was going to hit us," Lina Lopez, of Abulug town in Cagayan, told radio station dzRH.

Solidum, however, clarified that the initial tsunami warning only advised people to keep watch for changes in sea conditions.

"There was no order to evacuate," he said. "We need to improve the training of our communities. That’s why we need to have a tsunami drill in local communities."

Residents of northern Cagayan Valley, particularly on the northern and eastern coasts of Cagayan and Isabela, evacuated to safer areas.

Alarmed by the warning, Cagayan Gov. Edgar Lara authorized the temporary evacuation of residents of northern and eastern coastal villages.

In northeastern Aurora, hundreds of families from at least three towns hardest hit by a recent typhoon also fled their homes.

In Manila, residents of a shantytown close to Manila Bay evacuated after hearing news about the tsunami warning on radio and television. They returned home early yesterday, officials said.

The tsunami warning prompted the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC) to set up emergency evacuation centers in various parts of Cagayan Valley as well as form emergency response teams, said Chief Superintendent Jefferson Soriano, RDCC chairman and Cagayan Valley police director.

Solidum said the institute issued alert level 1 at about 8 p.m. Wednesday, after Indonesia, Vietnam and Hawaii issued tsunami warnings following the Japan quake.

The alert level was later raised to level 2 at about 11:30 p.m., which meant that a tsunami might hit Philippine coasts, but the waves would not be life-threatening, Solidum said.

The earthquake struck about 390 kilometers east of the Etorofu islands, north of Japan, according to Japan’s Meteorology Agency, which issued a tsunami warning 15 minutes later.

The agency also warned that a tsunami about two meters high or more could hit the Pacific coast of Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido and the main island of Honshu.

No reports of casualties or damage were reported, and the meteorological agency later withdrew its warning. — Helen Flores, Charlie Lagasca and AP