WATCH: Tofino residents went to the town’s community centre after a tsunami warning on Tuesday.
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Tofino residents cheered Tuesday morning after they received word that a tsunami warning was cancelled.
At around 2 a.m., hundred of residents were told to go to the town’s community hall after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck 281 kilometres south-east of Kodiak City, Alaska at a depth of about 25 kilometres. The quake happened at around 1:30 a.m. Pacific time.
Sherry Merk said a friend banged on her door and said her family had to get to higher ground. Merk’s grandson was spending the night and she remaind calm for him.
“Chris said it’s a tsunami, so I said, well we gotta go up the hill to the community centre,” Merk said.
The rest of the town, the surround islands and Ucluelet also evacuated following the warning.
While some residents heard that a 100-metre wave may hit, Tofino’s mayor said it did not appear people were panicking.
“They were very orderly and the evacuation from resorts and from houses, everything I’ve heard is that it was very orderly,” Josie Osborne said.
Brent Baker, chief of the Tofino Volunteer Fire Department, said both emergency services and the community went door-to-door to alert people.
Michael Korff, a Tofino resident that helped clean up the community hall after hundreds had gone home, said the wake up call’s made everyone feel grateful.
“I’m glad that everyone here will take this threat a little more seriously and be a little bit more prepared and that they had an opportunity to get scared awake, so to speak.”
Alexa Huffman
