A state of emergency was declared yesterday by Manasseh Sogavare, the Prime Minister, as aftershocks from the magnitude 8.0 earthquake shook the countryÂ’s Western province and rescue teams struggled to reach thousands of refugees sleeping out in the open. The tsunami alert triggered evacuations across the Pacific.
In Australia officials closed East coast beaches, warned fishing boats to come in and cancelled ferry services in Sydney Harbour. Residents left homes, hospitals and schools and fled to higher ground.
Outside Cairns there were traffic jams as panicked locals – even those living inland and well above sea level – fled the city while others abandoned their cars in lowlying areas. Gary Schofield, of Cairns disaster management group, said that authorities knew the tsunami was unlikely to strike the region’s shore but were unable to stop the panic. Seismologists issued a warning that there was a 50 per cent chance of a second equally powerful earthquake striking anything between a few hours and several weeks after the first. The Solomon Islands have suffered six “double earthquakes” in the past 90 years.
No wave was detected in Papua New Guinea, the SolomonsÂ’ nearest neighbour, allaying fears that there would be a repeat of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed 280,000 people across the Indian Ocean. There were no reports of damage from elsewhere.