Solomon Islands hit by quake, tsunami

A massive earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands today, sending a tsunami crashing into villages on the country’s west coast and leaving at least four people missing, officials said.

The magnitude 8 quake triggered tsunami warnings throughout the South Pacific and as far north as Hawaii, although officials canceled the alert after the danger period passed.

Police and residents said a wave several yards high crashed ashore at Gizo, a regional center in the country’s west, inundating buildings and causing widespread destruction.

“All the houses near the sea were flattened,” as water “right up to your head” swept through the town, resident Judith Kennedy said by telephone.

“The downtown area is a very big mess from the tsunami and the earthquake,” she said. “A lot of houses have collapsed.

“The whole town is still shaking” from aftershocks, Kennedy said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 7:39 a.m. and was centered 215 miles northwest of the capital, Honiara, at a depth of about six miles beneath the sea floor.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning bulletin for the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

In Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology said it had detected no threat to the nation’s northeastern coast.