NAGOYA, Japan — A nervous Japan on Sunday prepared for Godzilla. What it got instead was closer to the car-insurance gecko.
Fearing that a major tsunami could be triggered by Chile’s magnitude-8.8 earthquake, authorities here ordered nearly a quarter of a million households along the island nation’s eastern seaboard to evacuate to higher ground.
Disaster workers expected 10-foot waves or larger. Instead, by Sunday evening, only a few insignificant 6-inch to foot-high waves had lapped onto Japanese- controlled shores.
“I was watching television all day, and I was worried,” said Yufuko Goto, a 19-year-old waitress. “They were evacuating people. And I thought that something really big was coming our way.”
Many television networks switched to live coverage of preparations to meet the impending disaster. Emergency sirens screamed in many coastal communities. Train service was suspended and roads were closed in many low-lying areas.
The major tsunami warning was the first in 17 years and only the fourth since 1952, the Meteorological Agency said.
But the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii late Sunday lifted its tsunami alert that had been issued to 53 countries throughout the Pacific region after reporting only small waves in Japan and Russia. No injuries or damage was reported. Los Angeles Times
