7.9 quake off Tonga creates a small tsunami

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga — A powerful earthquake struck near the South Pacific nation of Tonga early Thursday, triggering tsunami warnings for as far away as Fiji and New Zealand. But word of the imminent danger never reached the tiny country closest to the epicenter.

There were no reports of injuries from the magnitude-7.9 temblor, about 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga. Authorities lifted the warnings within two hours, after recording a wave of less than 2 feet.

But nearly 18 months after an earthquake-driven tsunami in the Indian Ocean left at least 216,000 people dead or missing, sparking international calls for a better warning system, Pacific islanders received little or no notice of Thursday's threat.

A warning issued by the Honolulu-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center first went out 16 minutes after the 4:26 a.m. earthquake.

"We usually send it through e-mails, faxes, we make phone calls to the places nearest to the epicenter to make sure people are warned," said Victor Sardina, a geophysicist at the center

Tonga did not receive the alert because of a power failure there, said the center's, Gerard Fryer.

"There was problem in Tonga where there was a power outage and they didn't get our initial message," Fryer said, adding that the center needs to work with Tonga to correct the problem. He said he did not know whether the power failure was caused by the earthquake.

Mali'u Takai, deputy director of the Tonga's National Disaster Office, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that no warning was received.

"Nobody got a warning through the emergency satellite system in our meteorological office," Takai said. "Judging by the location of the epicenter, we would have been caught out without any warning at all because of the system's malfunction."

However, any warning probably would have been too late for Tongans if a major tsunami had come, because the epicenter was so close.

The Honolulu-based center's warning said it was possible a tsunami could strike Fiji within two hours of the quake and then, an hour later, New Zealand.

In Fiji, a tsunami warning alarm sounded in the capital, Suva. But authorities apparently failed to inform citizens, many on tiny and remote islands with poor communications.

At the Wakaya Club, a private luxury Fijian island resort where recent guests have included Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards, staff were alerted to the danger through satellite television news.