2. “If you’re watching us right now, no doubt you understand that we are under a full tsunami alert right now,” an emergency official says during a press conference in Honolulu.
3. “We are a couple of hours away from any impact to Hawaii,” he says. “Pay attention, listen,” he says.
6. Josh Green, the governor of Hawaii, is speaking now. He says: “I ask that you stay calm. if you are in a low-lying ara please get to higher ground,” he says.
7. He says the roads are full, he asks that people stay calm, co-operate and get to higher ground.
8. “If you are in a safe place please stay there, and if you’re not, please get to higher ground.”
11. Regan Morris
12. Reporting from Los Angeles
13. 
14. Image caption,
15. Roger Pleasanton pictured when he was interviewed 2023
16. Sirens and phone alerts are blaring across Maui – warning people that tsunami waves were due at 710 local – in less than three hours time. Maui-based bagpipe player Roger Pleasanton told the BBC he was relieved to get so many alerts.
17. “At least we know it’s working. The emergency services are working,” he said while lining up to buy diesel for his vehicle. “As we know it didn’t work during the fires.”
18. Pleasanton was the resident bagpipe player at Fleetwood’s – a Maui institution owned by Mick Fleetwood – which was destroyed in the 2003 Maui wildfires. Before the fires, he played his pipes at sunset most days on the deck of the bar.
19. We interviewed Pleasanton at the time as his home on Maui. While many dream of owning a bit of waterfront property in Hawaii, Pleasanton says today he’s especially relieved that he lives in the lush hills – on high ground.
20. “The traffic’s like New York City right now,” he said. “I was going to go to the grocery store, but I think I may have to skip the groceries and get out of here.”
23. Residents in many parts of Japan are under evacuation orders to seek high ground and stay away from the coasts.
24. This is a clip of people sheltering on top of a building in Mukawa, in Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture.
25. Media caption,
26. Watch: People evacuate onto the top of a building in Japan
29. Speaking to the BBC’s Newsday programme a short while ago, Helen Janiszewski, Assistant Professor, Geophysics and Tectonics Division at the University of Hawaii said that today’s earthquake ranks among the ten most severe in recorded history. According to the US Geological Survey, external, at magnitude 8.8 it is tied at the sixth most severe quake in history, with the 2010 earthquake in Biobío, Chile, and the 1906 earthquake in Esmeraldas, Ecuador.
30. The USGS says of the Chile earthquake, “Occurring offshore near the city of Quirihue, this intense earthquake killed 523 people and destroyed more than 370,000 homes.”
31. Of the Ecuador earthquake, it says, “Referred to as the Ecuador-Colombia earthquake, this quake produced a strong tsunami that killed 1,500 and reached as far north as San Francisco.”
32. Interestingly, the fifth most severe earthquake was, like today’s, in Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It was in 1952 and was “the world’s first recorded magnitude 9 earthquake.”
33. It “triggered a massive tsunami that struck Hawaii, causing over $1 million in damages.”
36. The first photos of a damaged kindergarten in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky are coming through.
37. As we reported earlier, the regional minister for emergency situations Sergei Lebedev said that the earthquake was one of the “strongest in decades”.
38. Image source, Reuters
41. Tsunami waves have flooded part of the Russian port town of Severo-Kurilsk, according to Russia’s emergencies ministry.
42. The town has a population of around 2,000 people.
43. Videos on social media appear to show water surging inland near the town.
46. Image source, Reuters
47. Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear plant have been evacuated and moved to higher ground, according to a statement from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
48. The Fukushima Daiichi plant was the site of a major nuclear disaster following the devastating 9.0 magnitude Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
49. TEPCO added that there have been no injuries or abnormalities recorded at the plants, but that they will continue to monitor tsunami warnings.
50. Earlier this week, TEPCO announced that the full-scale removal of fuel debris could be delayed by 12 to 15 years – to allow enough time for radiation levels to decrease.
53. US President Donald Trump has just posted about the tsunami warning in Hawaii and advisories in Alaska and the US’ pacific coast.
54. “Please visit tsunami.gov/, external for the latest information. STAY STRONG AND STAY SAFE!” he posted on Truth Social and X.
55. Tsunami warnings alert people to the possibility of dangerous powerful currents, while urging them to move to higher ground or inland. The lower-level advisories warn of strong currents and urge people to stay out of water and away from the beaches.
58. Sirens sounded in Honolulu after officials in Hawaii ordered an “immediate evacuation” of large parts of the island Oahu, of which Honolulu is the capital.
59. “Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves are expected,” Honolulu’s Department of Emergency Management also said in alerts on social media. Watch below:
60. Media caption,
61. Watch: Tsunami sirens blare in Honolulu
64. No casualties or damage have been reported so far, says Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.
65. Tsunami waves of between 30cm and 40cm have hit parts of northern Japan so far, with authorities warning of larger, subsequent waves.
68. Wednesday’s earthquake off the Kamchatka Peninsula was the strongest since 1952, with authorities warning of “strong aftershocks”.
69. “Significant, noticeable aftershocks with magnitudes up to 7.5 are expected to continue for at least another month,” the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences has warned.
70. The peninsula has already been rocked by a series of earthquakes in the last 10 days.
71. On 20 July, it recorded a series of five earthquakes, including one with a magnitude of 7.4 near Kamchatka’s capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
72. Image source, Getty Images
73. Image caption,
74. An earlier photo of the coastline in the Kamchatka region
77. Several people were injured in Russia’s far east after this morning’s earthquake which struck the remote Kamchatka peninsula, the state’s TASS news agency reports.
78. Some sustained injuries while evacuating, including a woman who jumped out of a window. The region’s health minister Oleg Melnikov has said all of them are “in satisfactory condition”.
79. “No serious injuries have been reported at this time,” he said.
82. The earthquake that struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula has been upgraded to an 8.8 magnitude tremor, according to the United States Geological Survey.
83. It was previously recorded as an 8.7 magnitude earthquake.
86. We’ve got more on the tsunami in Hokkaido. Estimates put it at about 30cm (12in), and it hit Nemuro, a port city in the north-eastern part of Hokkaido.
87. Japanese authorities warned earlier that the subsequent waves could be higher.
90. The tsunami has hit the northern part of Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture, local broadcaster NHK says.
93. Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says authorities are “working to assess the situation”, adding that any relief efforts will “put human lives first”.
94. There is no confirmation of any damage so far, he says, urging residents under evacuation orders to seek high ground and stay away from the coasts.
95. Image source, Reuters
96. Image caption,
97. Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba
100. Three-metre (10 ft) tsunami waves could hit Ecuador following the tremor, according to the US Tsunami warning center.
101. As we just reported, tsunami warnings have been issued for several countries along with Pacific Ocean coastlines.
104. Officials in Hawaii have ordered an “immediate evacuation” of large parts the island Oahu, including the state capital Honolulu.
105. “Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves are expected,” Honolulu’s Department of Emergency Management says in alerts on social media.
108. Image source, Reuters
109. Japan has also urged residents in affected areas to evacuate immediately. Its evacuation warnings now span hundreds of kilometres along a wide swathe of its coastal regions.
110. “Escape to a higher, safe location right away.The time of the tsunami’s arrival is just an estimate. Waves could actually arrive sooner or later. Continue to evacuate as long as the warning is in place,” authorities say in an alert.
111. Meterologists have forecasted that tsunami waves could reach as high as 3-4m.

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Japan has also urged residents in affected areas to evacuate immediately. Its evacuation warnings now span hundreds of kilometres along a wide swathe of its coastal regions.

“Escape to a higher, safe location right away.The time of the tsunami’s arrival is just an estimate. Waves could actually arrive sooner or later. Continue to evacuate as long as the warning is in place,” authorities say in an alert.

Meterologists have forecasted that tsunami waves could reach as high as 3-4m.

The 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck about 78 miles (126km) from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, at a depth of 18 kilometres, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The tremor generated a tsunami of 3-4 metres in Kamchatka, according to Sergei Lebedev, the regional minister for emergency situations.

There were no injuries, but a kindergarten was damaged, according to preliminary information, Lebedev added.

“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

Here’s a list of places for which tsunami alerts have been issued:

• Japan: Warnings have been issued for coastal regions from Hokkaido to Kyushu while lower-level advisories are in place in other parts of the country
• All of US West Coast
• Portions of Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands
• Hawaii
• Guam

A massive 8.7 magnitude earthquake has struck off Russia’s fareastern coast, triggering tsunami warnings across parts of Russia, Japan and United States.

Follow us for more developments on this breaking story.