Earthquake off Russia sends waves toward U.S. while experts advise preparedness

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia’s far eastern coast on July 29, causing tsunamis to ripple throughout the Pacific Ocean.

The quake was among the strongest ever recorded and was the largest in 14 years.

Waves reached the United States’ west coast hours later.

“When you see something that’s 8.8 in one of those subduction zones, where it was in the Kamchatka region, you’re like ‘Oh, this is going to be a long night,'” the NOAA’s International Tsunami Information Center’s Deputy Director Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade said.

She said that it was fortunate that the earthquake’s epicenter was so far away.

“In this type of situation we had plenty of time before it reached any U.S. shores,” von Hillebrandt-Andrade said. “But in other cases, the tsunami could occur right offshore a U.S. state or territory, for example in Puerto Rico, and the tsunami could hit within five minutes of the earthquake.”

The chances of Rhode Island ever getting hit by a tsunami are very slim, but not zero.

Though the state has seen some minor earthquakes in recent years, it doesn’t lie near a fault line, and von Hillebrandt-Andrade said  it’s likely that any tsunamis the state would see would come as the result of an offshore landslide or an earthquake near Portugal.

“They’ve happened very infrequently in the eastern part of the United States, but they’re not impossible,” she said.

In the event of any emergency, the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency’s Courtney Marciano said not to panic, and to listen to state officials regarding updates.

“Making sure that you’re taking preventative and preemptive steps before anything happens, I think, is the biggest thing that people can do to ensure their safety and the safety of their loved ones,” she said.