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Tsunami wipes out communities
02/04/2007 07:16 - (SA)
Honira - The tsunami that smashed into the western province of the Solomon Islands early on Monday was between three and five metres high and wiped out entire communities, witnesses said.
"Water is coming up and destroyed all the housing along the coastal areas of Gizo," an unnamed eyewitness told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
"I think it is more than five metres."
8.0-magnitude quake
The wall of water, triggered by a 8.0-magnitude earthquake, swamped the town of Gizo, the capital of the western province popular with tourists for its pristine beaches and diving, locals reported.
Robert Iroga, editor of the Solomon Star newspaper, said it was too early to put a death toll on the disaster but that he had received reports from locals that bodies were "floating in the sea" in one area.
He said reports indicated one island close to the provincial airport had been totally covered by the wave.
"Unconfirmed reports we receive seem to suggest that the island was entirely washed away and people are floating in the sea. That's a report I have from people on the ground there."
Thousands could be affected
Iroga, who is based in Honiara, said thousands of people could be affected by the tsunami.
"It's a time of year when a lot of people are staying in the villages, the schools are on a break," he told ABC radio.
Kerrie Kennedy, an Australian who lives in the Solomons, said she had spoken to her husband in Gizo who said the town had been badly damaged by the tsunami.
"I don't know exactly where it went, but I heard one description of a 10-foot wave that had gone through," she told Australian Associated Press.
"There are houses destroyed - our next door neighbour's house has been flattened, whereas our house hasn't been.
"I don't think there's anyone who hasn't been affected by it," she said.
Aftershocks
Kennedy, currently on holiday in Australia, said people were now afraid to return to their homes because of the persistent aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 6.7.
"The earthquake hasn't stopped. It's still shaking now," she said.
"Most people are actually not willing to go into their houses at the moment, they're sitting outside because they're just waiting to see what happens."
The Solomons government was on Monday attempting to survey the damage to the remote western province where residents live in daily fear of tsunamis.
Reports indicate people felt the quake and immediately feared a giant wave.
"People found out the sea was moving away and the shoreline was dry, and then people realised there would be a problem. Not long after that, those waves came back again," chief government spokesperson Alfred Maesulia told CNN.
- AFP
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