Solomons tsunami destroys villages

People are staying on higher ground as they wait for aftershocks to subside following an earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands on Wednesday. Officials estimate 100 homes were damaged and six people were killed.

By Kristen Gelineau,?Associated Press / February 6, 2013

A badly damaged home is seen Wednesday following a Tsunami at Lata, Temotu province, Solomon Islands.

AP Photo / World Vision

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Six bodies, including a child's, have been found in the sodden wreckage left by a tsunami that smashed into villages in the?Solomon?Islands, flattening dozens of homes in the South Pacific island chain.

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The 1.5-meter (4 foot, 11-inch) waves that roared inland on Santa Cruz Island, in the eastern?Solomons, on Wednesday were too fast to outrun for five elderly villagers and one child, who died after being sucked under the rushing water, George Herming, a spokesman for the prime minister, said Thursday. Several other people were still missing and dozens of strong aftershocks were keeping frightened villagers from returning to the coast, Herming said.

"People are still scared of going back to their homes because there's nothing left, so they are residing in temporary shelters on higher ground," Herming said.

The tsunami was generated by a powerful 8.0-magnitude earthquake that struck near the town of Lata, on Santa Cruz in Temotu, the easternmost province in the?Solomons. Temotu has a population of around 30,000.

Smaller waves were recorded in Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

The damage appeared to be concentrated to the west side of Santa Cruz, with five villages wiped out, Herming said. Authorities were still struggling to reach the remote area but an estimated 100 homes had been damaged or destroyed, he said.

The tsunami flooded the airstrip at the nearest airport and left it littered with debris, preventing relief workers from reaching the region by air. Smaller islands may also have sustained some damage, but workers had also not yet reached those areas, Herming said.

More than 50 people were killed and thousands lost their homes in April 2007 when a magnitude-8.1 quake hit the western?Solomon?Islands, sending waves crashing into coastal villages.

The?Solomons?comprise more than 200 islands with a population of about 552,000 people. They lie on the "Ring of Fire" ? an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/dGvkUC7_VH0/Solomons-tsunami-destroys-villages

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