Alaska, Hawaii under tsunami warning, watch
Source: Reuters
(Updates with Hawaii watch canceled, no Alaska evacuations) WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) _ Alaska was under a tsunami warning on Saturday after a 8.3-magnitude earthquake in the northern Pacific Ocean, U.S. authorities said. A tsunami watch was lifted for Hawaii. The warning was in effect from Sand Point on the southwestern Alaskan Peninsula west across the Aleutian Islands, a 1,000-mile (1,600 km) mostly uninhabited chain, according to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. The U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska said there had been no evacuations and a small tsunami was reported at Shemya island, 1,500 miles (2,400 km) southwest of Anchorage. "Shemya did have a small wave. It was .2 feet. That's the only wave reported in Alaska," said Petty Officer Jesami Statesir in Juneau. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch on Friday night for a wide area of the Pacific, including Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Hawaii. The watch was lifted for Hawaii after several hours. "I do not expect an ocean-crossing tsunami with destructive power," Stuart Weinstein, assistant director of the center, said earlier by telephone from Honolulu. A small tsunami wave hit Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido on Saturday after the quake hit 325 miles (525 km) east northeast of the Kurile islands, and 1,065 miles (1,710 km) northeast of Tokyo.
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