Posted: 4/2/07 Section: News

Media Credit: The Associated Press A swimmer at Bondi beach returns to the water despite it's closed in Sydney, Australia Monday, April 2, 2007. Ocean beaches along Australia's Pacific coast have been closed due to a tsunami warning after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands Monday morning.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AP) - Tsunami waves churned by an undersea earthquake crashed ashore in the Solomon Islands on Monday, wiping away entire villages and triggering alerts from Australia to Hawaii, officials said. At least 13 people were killed, and the prime minister warned that the toll would likely grow.

In the South Pacific nation's west, where the devastation appeared centered, there were reports of people being swept away as waves plowed up to a half-mile inland. The magnitude-8 quake that created the tsunami was followed by more than two dozen aftershocks, including at least four of magnitude-6 or stronger.

"It was just a noise like an underground explosion," said Dorothy Parkinson, a resident of Gizo, where a wall of water swept through the streets. "The wave came almost instantaneously. Everything that was standing is flattened."

Some residents described a wave up to 16 feet tall.

"We ran for our lives, away from the waves," Arnold Pidakere, a schoolteacher in Gizo, told the British Broadcasting Corp. "When we looked back, we saw our house being destroyed."

Pidakere was among thousands of residents of the town of 7,000 who fled to a nearby hill.

"There wasn't any warning _ the warning was the earth tremors," Alex Lokopio, premier of Western Province, told New Zealand's National Radio. "It shook us very, very strongly and we were frightened, and all of a sudden the sea was rising up."

Along the coast "all of the property was washed away to the open sea," he said. At least three islands near Gizo also reported widespread destruction, although the number of people affected was unclear.

In a televised address, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare warned that the number of dead was likely to rise: "I think we are expecting more".

"This is a very trying time for our nation and I would urge leaders at all levels in the affected areas to make it our utmost priority to ensure that our people receive the maximum comfort they need," he said.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools

The Daily Illini encourages on-topic discussion through article commenting on its articles and blogs. It is our policy not to delete any comments based upon political or ideological point of view. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are abusive, off-topic or use excessive foul language.

The posting of copyrighted material, including any and all content for which you are not the author, is illegal under Federal intellectual property laws. Such activity will not be tolerated. Comments containing copyrighted material will be removed, and continued violation of copyright law is grounds for being banned completely from commenting on DailyIllini.com.

If you feel any post meets these conditions or merits review, please e-mail our editors at meonline@dailyillini.com.