MOSCOW, April 02. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations is checking information about a likely tsunami threat for the Pacific coast of the Kuril Islands.
A strong 8.2 magnitude earthquake was fixed in the Pacific off Peru and Chile at a depth of ten kilometers overnight to Wednesday.
“Despite a long distance of 14,000 kilometers from the Kuril Islands, specialists of the Russian Tsunami Center believe that a tsunami may come to the Pacific coast of the Kuril Islands,” the main Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) department in Russian Far East’s Sakhalin region told ITAR-TASS. “The decision on whether to declare a tsunami warning for the Russian coast will be taken at around 6pm Moscow time (GMT+4) on Wednesday after the tsunami wave flows on the coast of the US Hawaii Islands and California,” the regional emergencies department said.
Administrative municipal entities and enterprises in Severo-Kurilsk, Kurilsk and Yuzhno-Kurilsk districts are specifying plans, and forces and machinery are on standby, the emergencies department said.
“The main EMERCOM department in Sakhalin region has deployed an emergency headquarters, an alert group of the center of management in emergency situations is gathering and processing information about current situation. According to preliminary reports from the department of monitoring and forecasting of the center, the onslaught of a destructive wave is hardly probable. Authorities of municipal entities have issued an emergency warning with instructions for emergency response,” the regional emergencies department said.
A warning system will be used in case of emergency.