Russia checking info about likely tsunami threat for Kuriles

MOSCOW, April 2 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations is checking information about a likely tsunami threat for the Pacific coast of the Kuril Islands. A strong earthquake of 8 points was fixed in the Pacific off Peru and Chile at a depth of ten kilometres overnight to Wednesday. “Despite a big distance of 14,000 kilometres from the Kuril Islands specialists of Russian tsunami centre believe that a tsunami may come to the Pacific coast of the Kuril Islands,” the main Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) department in Russian Far East’s Sakhalin region told Itar-Tass. “The decision to declare a tsunami warning or no threat for Russian coast will be taken at around 6pm Moscow time on Wednesday (2pm GMT) after the tsunami wave flows on the coast of the U.S. Hawaii Islands and California,” the regional emergencies department said. Administrative municipal entities and enterprises in Severo-Kurilsk, Kurilsk and Yuzhno-Kurilsk districts are specifying plans, forces and machinery are on standby, the emergencies department said. “The main EMERCOM department in Sakhalin region has deployed an emergency headquarters, an alert group of the centre of management in emergency situations is gathering and processing information about current situation. According to preliminary reports from the department of monitoring and forecasting of the centre, the onslaught of a destructive wave is hardly probable. Authorities of municipal entities have issued an emergency warning with instructions for emergency response,” the regional emergencies department said. A warning system will be used in case of emergency. Learn more on itar-tass.com