Massive Tsunami Hits Eastern Fiji
Greetings from Australia
I am thankful to the Almighty One Who Sits Above the Circle of the Earth
for His Grace and Mercy that he reveals things that are hidden to be
revealed in these times that we may return to HIM while it is still day.
Approximately 3 years ago the Lord HAD given me a vision of a double
sweeping tidal wave that would hit the northern eastern coastal line
sweeping from Tailevu North all the way to the South Eastern Coastal belt
reaching to Serua Namosi. This occured after being woken up at 0330hrs
from sleep by the SPIRIT OF THE LORD TO CRY OUT BEFORE HIM FOR OUR NATION
from our balcony. Being in the Spirit He LIFTED ME UP TO THE HEAVENS AND
SHOWED ME THE FIRST WAVE THAT REACHED THE VERY PORCH OF OUR HOME. The
return of this wave was sudden and it took all that it could in its path.
The Second wave came to the same level but this time it stayed for three
days until it receded with a devastation and desolation we have never
before experienced.
There is a stern message being released by the Spirit of the Lord to a
Nation of Fiji that has called itself a Christian nation but flirt with
Eygpt. He is unsheathing His Sword from its sheath which is going to cut both
the RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED (Ezekiel 21:1-7).Vs 6 He calls us to "groan
before them with a broken heart and bitter grief. When people ask you, you
will reply "because of the news that is coming, every heart will melt and
every limb will melt, every spirit will become faint and every knee will
become like water".
Arise ye who stand on the rampart to pray until Jerusalem becomes a praise
in the Nation.
God BLESS you both and thank you for being faithful to the Spirit of the
Lord.
Vereniki and Asena Raiwalui
In His Service
(CNN.com) -- All tsunami warnings issued after a major quake in the southern Pacific Ocean have been canceled, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Wednesday, May 3, 2006; Posted: 9:43 p.m. EDT (01:43 GMT)
The alerts for the southwestern Pacific Islands were issued early Thursday (local time) after an earthquake measuring about 8.0 in magnitude shook the region.
The quake's epicenter was about 153 kilometers (95 miles) off the coast of Tonga, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
It struck Thursday at 4:26 a.m. in Tonga (Wednesday at 1526 GMT).
The USGS said it issued the warning "based only on the earthquake evaluation."
Paula Chipman, an American tourist in Tonga's capital, Nukualofa, called it "a major, major shaker" and said it was impossible to assess the damage on the island because it was still dark.
"We felt it. We felt it huge," she said.
One guest at her hotel hurt his foot when he jumped from a balcony to get out, Chipman said.
"Everybody was bailing out of the building," she said.
Chipman said the area around her hotel was without power in the early morning darkness, except for several hotels -- including hers -- which were apparently running on back-up generators. Guests had heard "absolutely nothing, zero" from authorities on the island in the aftermath of the quake.
On the island of Fiji, to the west of Tonga, several people reported no damage. One local journalist said he felt a tremor, but said the local seismologists had recorded a much weaker quake.
David Applegate, senior science adviser for the USGS, said the earthquake was likely to affect only "a relatively small population."
"So far, we've got five responses in four city areas on the islands of Tonga, with intensities ranging from fairly light shaking up to very strong shaking," Applegate said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued alerts for the islands of Tonga, Niue, American Samoa, Samoa, Fiji and Wallis-Futuna.
The center's most recent report said a tsunami could have begun to affect the islands as early as Wednesday afternoon.
An earlier warning for New Zealand was canceled, and an advisory for the Hawaiian Islands said only that coastal areas might experience "small sea-level changes."
"When no major waves are observed for two hours after the estimated time of arrival or damaging waves have not occurred for at least two hours, then local authorities can assume the threat is passed," the tsunami center's last bulletin said. "Danger to boats and coastal structures can continue for several hours due to rapid currents."
Applegate said the magnitude of the quake was larger than the 1989 temblor that struck the San Francisco Bay area, but "considerably smaller" than the December 26, 2004, quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
That quake -- with a magnitude of 9.0 -- triggered a massive tsunami that spread across the Indian Ocean, killing more than 200,000 people in a dozen countries.
"This is still a large earthquake, but it's not the kind of monster that we saw off Sumatra," he said.
Pacific Magazine
A tsunami alert was issued in Fiji yesterday afternoon after two powerful undersea earthquakes struck within seconds, FijiLive reports.
No damage or injuries were reported.
The first quake, with a magnitude of 6.3, occurred at 3:16 p.m. about 150 miles northeast of Vanua Levu, the main tourist spot in Fiji's chain of islands, at a depth of 18 miles. Seconds later, a magnitude 6.8 aftershock struck nearby, about 470 miles west of Apia, the capital of neighboring Samoa.
The second quake was much deeper, at 102 miles beneath the ocean floor.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a bulletin that said there was no Pacific-wide threat of a destructive tsunami but that quakes of the size measured could cause damaging tsunamis.
Nilesh Kumar, technical officer at Fiji's Mineral Resources Department, said there had been no reports of any tsunami, and no reports from anywhere in Fiji of shakes being felt.......FijiLive/PNS
Wednesday: December 14, 2005
6.3 Magnitude Earthquake 18 Miles Under The Sea Prompted Tsunami Warning
CBS News
SUVA, Fiji, Dec. 13, 2005
(AP) A powerful undersea earthquake struck near Fiji on Tuesday, geologists said, and officials issued a tsunami alert for the local area.
No damage or injuries have been reported.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3, occurred at 3:16 p.m. about 155 miles northeast of Vanua Levu, the main tourist spot in Fiji's chain of islands, at a depth of 18 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Fiji, a chain of 322 islands, is southwest of Hawaii and due north of New Zealand, between Australia to the west and Tahiti to the east.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a bulletin that said there was no Pacific-wide threat of a destructive tsunami, but that quakes of the size measured Tuesday could cause damaging local tsunamis.
Nilesh Kumar, technical officer at Fiji's Mineral Resources Department, said there had been no reports of any tsunami and no reports from anywhere in Fiji of shakes being felt.
Kumar said the department is maintaining a watch and is in communication with the warning center in Hawaii.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported a second quake nearby, much deeper and with a magnitude of 6.8. But the survey removed the second quake from its Web site soon after details were posted.
The survey says that when a large earthquake occurs it is common for seismological equipment in the area to incorrectly record multiple temblors, and that such glitches are quickly corrected on its Web site.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
APIA, Samoa - Police in green reflective vests searched a ghastly landscape of mud-strewn streets, pulverized homes and bodies scattered in a swamp Wednesday as dazed survivors emerged from the muck and mire of an earthquake and tsunami that killed 119 in the South Pacific.
Military transports flew medical personnel, food, water and medicine to the islands of Samoa and American Samoa, which were devastated by the wall of water triggered by Tuesday morning's undersea earthquake. One cargo plane from New Zealand brought in a temporary morgue and a body identification team - with officials expecting the death toll to rise as more areas are searched.
Cars and boats - many battered and upside down - littered the coastline. Debris as small as a spoon and as large as piece of masonry weighing several tons were strewn in the mud.
Survivors told harrowing tales of encountering the deadly tsunami.
PHOTOS:Tsunami aftermath
RAW VIDEO: Devastation in Samoa (via YouTube)
"I was scared. I was shocked," said Didi Afuafi, 28, who was on a bus when the giant waves came ashore on American Samoa. "All the people on the bus were screaming, crying and trying to call their homes. We couldn't get on cell phones. The phones just died on us. It was just crazy."
With the water approaching fast, the bus driver sped to the top of a nearby mountain, where 300 to 500 people were gathered, including patients evacuated from the main hospital. Among them were newborns with IVs, crying children and frightened elderly people.
A family atop the mountain provided food and water, while clergymen led prayers. Afuafi helped evacuate some patients, and said people are on still on edge and feared another quake.
"This is going to be talked about for generations," said Afuafi, who lives just outside the village of Leone, one of the hardest hit areas.
Suavai Ioane was rattled by the violent earthquake that shook his village of 600 people on Samoa - but he didn't have much time to calm down.
"After the shaking finished, about five or 10 minutes after, the wave very quickly came over us," said Ioane, who was carried by a wave about 80 yards (meters) inland from his village of Voutosi. He knew he was lucky to be alive; eight bodies were found in a nearby swamp.
Some people had enough warning to run to higher ground.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said it issued an alert, but the waves got to the islands so quickly that residents only had about 10 minutes to respond. Another system designed to alert aid agencies suffered a hardware malfunction that delayed notification, but that did not affect island residents.
The quake was centered about 120 miles south of the islands of Samoa, which has about 220,000 people, and American Samoa, a U.S. territory of 65,000.
Four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (4 to 6 meters) high roared ashore on American Samoa about 15 minutes after the quake, reaching up to a mile (1.5 kilometers) inland, officials said.
Another strong underwater earthquake rocked western Indonesia on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the Samoan quake, briefly triggering a tsunami alert for countries along the Indian Ocean. The 7.6-magnitude quake toppled buildings, cut power and triggered a landslide on Sumatra island, and at least 75 people were reported killed. Experts said the seismic events were not related.
Hampered by power and communications outages, officials in the South Pacific islands struggled to determine casualties and damage.
Samoa National Disaster Management committee member Filomina Nelson told New Zealand's National Radio the number of dead in her country had reached 83 - mostly elderly and young children. At least 30 people were killed on American Samoa, Gov. Togiola Tulafono said.
Authorities in Tonga, southwest of the Samoas, confirmed at least six dead and four missing, according to acting New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English.
A Coast Guard C-130 plane loaded with aid and carrying Federal Emergency Management Agency officials flew from Hawaii to American Samoa's capital of Pago Pago, where debris had been cleared from runways so emergency planes could land.
President Barack Obama declared a major disaster for American Samoa.
In Pago Pago, the streets and fields were filled with debris, mud, overturned cars and boats. Several buildings in the city - just a few feet above sea level - were flattened. Power was expected to be out in some areas for up to a month and officials said some 2,200 people were in seven shelters across the island.
"Right now, we're focused on bringing in the assistance for people that have been injured, and for the immediate needs of the tens of thousands of survivors down there," said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.
Reinforcements were on the way, including a Navy frigate and two huge Air Force cargo planes soon to leave from Hawaii.
English said the temporary morgue and the body identification team were sent to Samoa after local officials expressed concern "about the growing death toll."
Hundreds of people bombarded American Samoa's radio stations with requests to announce the names of their missing loved ones. Broadcasters urged listeners to contact their families immediately.
Joey Cummings of radio station 93KHJ in Pago Pago told the BBC that he watched from a balcony as a 15-foot tsunami wave struck, and "the air was filled with screams."
He yelled for people to run uphill, "but they just ran down the street away from the wave rather than make a sharp left and up the steep mountain just feet away."
A "river of mud" carried trees, cars, buses and boats past his building, which is practically at sea level, Cummings said.
Some people ransacked stores, he said, adding that bodies were stacked in the back of pickup trucks.
In Carson, Calif., High Chief Loa Pele Faletogo, president of the Samoan Federation of America, comforted Samoans in the U.S. who came to him seeking news of their relatives. The chief said he learned the body of one of his cousins, in her 60s, was found floating along the shore.
All 65 employees at the National Park of American Samoa were accounted for, said Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, Calif. The park service has 13 permanent workers and between 30 and 50 volunteers, depending on the time of year.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs said three Australians were among the dead. The British Foreign Office said one Briton was missing and presumed dead.
"So much has gone. So many people are gone," said a visibly shaken Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi as he flew from New Zealand to Apia. "I'm so shocked, so saddened by all the loss."
He said his village of Lepa was destroyed. Although the alarm sounded on the radio and gave people time to get to higher ground, "not everyone escaped," he added.
Before boarding the C-130 with the FEMA officials in Hawaii, Tulafono said "each and every family" in American Samoa will know one of the dead.
While the earthquake and tsunami were big, they were not on the same scale of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 230,000 in a dozen countries across Asia.
Although the quakes in the Samoas and Indonesia struck within 24 hours of each other, experts said there was no link between them.
8 October 2009, 11:00am
PORT VILA: Three powerful earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.8, 7.7 and 7.1 struck near the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu in the space of just
over one hour today, seismologists said.
The first magnitude 7.8 quake sparked a region-wide tsunami alert and was quickly followed by two other strong earthquakes, the US Geological Survey said.
The initial earthquake struck 294 kilometres from Vanuatu's Espiritu Santo island at a shallow depth of 35 kilometres at 9:03 am (0330 IST Thursday), and was followed just 15 minutes later by a 7.7 quake.
The second quake, the magnitude of which was revised upwards from 7.3, hit 330 kilometres from Luganville on Espiritu Santo island at 9:18 am.
Residents in the area were shaken again by a 7.1 magnitude quake at 10:13 am about 280 kilometres northwest of Luganville.
Aftershocks also shook the region, with a 5.7 quake shaking Vanuatu nearly two hours after the first big quake, and a 5.3 tremor striking near Samoa, causing panic in the islands that were devastated by a tsunami last week.
A total of 184 people are confirmed dead in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga following a tsunami sparked by an 8.0 magnitude quake on September 29. Six remain missing.