WAVY.COM - Tonga says tsunami warning system failed
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga Officials in Tonga say a tsunami warning system failed to alert officials after a massive earthquake rocked the sea floor not far from the island nation.
The warning was issued for Tonga and for places as far away as Alaska after the magnitude seven-point-nine quake. Authorities in New Zealand went briefly to high alert. But Tonga says it never got word.
The deputy director of Tonga's National Disaster Office tells The Associated Press the system that should have passed on a warning from a monitoring station in Hawaii malfunctioned. He says Tonga received a notice of the alert cancellation, but not the initial warning.
The alert was lifted after scientists recorded an ocean wave from the quake of less than two feet."
The warning was issued for Tonga and for places as far away as Alaska after the magnitude seven-point-nine quake. Authorities in New Zealand went briefly to high alert. But Tonga says it never got word.
The deputy director of Tonga's National Disaster Office tells The Associated Press the system that should have passed on a warning from a monitoring station in Hawaii malfunctioned. He says Tonga received a notice of the alert cancellation, but not the initial warning.
The alert was lifted after scientists recorded an ocean wave from the quake of less than two feet."
posted by DP at 5:33 PM
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