A tsunami advisory was lifted for the Aleutians and the Pribilof Islands Wednesday morning, after one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula at about 3:25 p.m. Alaska time.
The magnitude 8.8 earthquake sparked tsunami warnings across the Pacific and sent a series of waves to the coastlines of several states and countries, including Japan and Russia, where damage was reported.
The largest wave in Alaska, at 2.7 feet, hit Adak Island at 11:21 p.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Tsunami Warning System, which is part of the National Weather Service.
Adak City Manager Breck Craig and most of the community of about 50 people gathered to wait for the wave at the Bering Hill Chapel on Tuesday evening. A wave was forecasted to arrive at 5:40 p.m., but Craig said he saw no sign of one. He said people cleared out around 7 p.m.
"Everybody still went home and loaded up their trucks and gassed up their vehicles and got their generators gassed up, and we were all ready, in case, you know something happened," Craig said Wednesday morning.
He said he didn't get much sleep Tuesday night.
"I slept in my clothes like everybody else in town, I think, did," Craig said.
Craig said people in Adak didn't feel the initial magnitude 8.8 earthquake or any of its aftershocks. And thankfully, he said, they haven't found any damage.
"We checked the pier. We checked the small boat harbor. We're still in the process of just checking things, just to be double sure," Craig said. "Even small waves, you know, can do damage. So far, we're not finding anything."
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Craig said the town's emergency systems were ready for the alert — they'd just held a tsunami siren test Friday.
"The downside of that was we had to make sure we said, 'Hey, this is not another test. This is real, please evacuate to the tsunami center,'" Craig said.
Other communities in the western Aleutians also saw tsunami waves — including Atka and Nikolski, which both had observed wave heights of over a foot, according to the National Weather Service. Waves of just under a foot were also observed in Unalaska.
Dave Snider, with the National Tsunami Warning Center, said there may still be some unusual currents and water levels in coastal communities over the next several days.
"Don't be surprised if that happens, and be extra cautious in places that you're familiar with. Every community knows their coastline better than anybody else," he said.
A tsunami warning had initially been in effect for communities along the western Aleutian Chain, including Atka and Adak, as well as the Pribilofs. An advisory remains in effect for parts of the California coastline as of Wednesday afternoon.
People in those places are advised to stay out of the water and away from beaches and waterways.
A magnitude of 8.8 would make this one of the 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded worldwide, and the largest in more than a decade.
KUCB's Sofia Stuart-Rasi and Theo Greenly contributed reporting.
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