July 30, 2025: Tsunami warnings in the US downgraded after massive quake strikes Russia’s far east

Our live coverage of the tsunami alerts across the Pacific has ended for the day. Scroll through the posts below to read about today’s developments.

View of the waves in Vina del Mar, Chile on Wednesday.

Chile’s disaster response agency SENAPRED has canceled tsunami alerts in several parts of the country, including the Antarctic territory, Easter Island, San Felix Island and the regions of Aysén and Magallanes.

Most other coastal areas in the country remain on alert, SENAPRED said on X.

A woman walks near the water in Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia, on Wednesday.

Colombia and Ecuador have canceled tsunami alerts for their Pacific coastal areas following the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Russia’s far east.

Colombia’s disaster risk management agency said no more waves will reach the coasts of Nariño, Cauca, Valle del Cauca and Chocó, but urged residents to continue to follow authorities’ instructions.

Ecuador’s Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute said the waves generated by the earthquake have passed and no longer pose a major threat to the country. Still, it warned that some areas could continue to experience small sea-level fluctuations.

Waves hit boats moored at the dock during a tsunami warning in Easter Island, Chile on Wednesday.

No damage was reported on Easter Island, the director of Chile’s national disaster response agency said Wednesday, as the country remains on high alert for possible tsunamis after a large earthquake hit Russia’s remote east coast.

Álvaro Elizalde, Chile’s minister of the interior, said that decisions on shelters are being made by regional officials.

“Regarding the shelters, these are decisions being made in the different regions according to needs and the regional councils, which are the ones that implement these measures. Obviously, we are gathering the information and can provide updates from there once we have completed the information gathering,” he said.

Chile’s national disaster response agency has said that people must leave “the beach area” of the country’s sparsely populated Antarctic Territory.

“Due to a #TSUNAMI precaution state, the beach area of the Antarctic Territory, #Magallanes Region, must be abandoned,” SENAPRED posted on X.

The warning “does not imply a massive evacuation,” the agency said, but it does mean that people should move away from the coastline, as well as avoid maritime activities.

A similar order was issued for Guaitecas and Cisnes in Chile’s Aysén Region, the agency said in an earlier post. In recent hours, evacuations have begun along various sections of the country’s coastline, including the regions of Maule, Ñuble, Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos, and Los Lagos.

SENAPRED previously put the country’s entire coast, including its Antarctic Territory, under a “red alert,” according to the agency’s website.

The tsunami advisory has ended for all of the Hawaiian Islands as of 8:58 a.m. HST (2:58 p.m. ET), according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

“Tsunami wave heights across the state of Hawaii are now below advisory levels and are continuing to diminish,” the PTWC said. “Small sea level changes and strong or unusual currents may persist for several additional hours in some coastal areas.”

The largest tsunami heights from the 8.8 earthquake near Russia were experienced in the Hawaiian Islands with heights reaching 5.7 feet.

New Zealand’s emergency authorities issued a new national advisory early Thursday morning local time, urging residents in coastal areas to stay away from the water amid the possibility of “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore.”

The advisory from the National Emergency Management Agency added that “the threat is likely to remain in force until at least midday today.”

The advisory follows a similar alert from authorities last night.

“Tsunami activity has already reached parts of New Zealand,” the advisory reads. “The first currents and surges are unlikely to be the largest and are expected to continue over many hours. The threat must be regarded as real until this Advisory is cancelled.”

Nonetheless, the risk of widespread flooding inland is low, the advisory continued.

Members of the Ecuadorian Navy patrol El Murcielago beach in Manta, Ecuador, on Wednesday.

Authorities in Ecuador said the country’s tsunami warning “remains in effect, with the possibility of waves up to 1 meter high” on the Ecuadorean mainland.

“Currently, there are slight disturbances in sea level, which could continue for the next few hours,” said INOCAR, the Ecuadorean Navy’s Oceanographic Institute, in a statement on X.

Higher-than-usual waves measured in the Galapagos Islands “have not caused any material damage,” the statement continued. Nonetheless, INOCAR urged residents in coastal “risk zones” to “evacuate to safe areas following established routes.”

“Remember that a tsunami can consist of multiple waves,” INOCAR added. “The danger may last for several hours after the first wave.”

Paintings and cabinets falling off walls. The ground moving “in waves.” People rushing to gas stations to stock up on fuel.

These are the chaotic scenes in Russia following a massive earthquake which struck off the country’s far eastern coast on Wednesday, according to testimony shared with Russian state media.

Shpilenok said that people living in high-rise buildings feel very vulnerable and want to “temporarily leave.”

Another local, Anton – who works as a guide in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula – told state media that he was drinking coffee in the hotel bar when the tremors started.

“You could literally see the waves, like special effects. And although I am an active snowboarder, it was almost impossible to keep my balance,” he said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier that there were “no casualties” in Russia following the 8.8 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunamis.

The number of people who may have been injured was not mentioned.

Tsunami waves have begun to hit Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, according to data from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC).

The islands of Baltra and Santacruz have thus far experienced wave heights of 1.04 meters (3.4 feet) and 0.4 meters (1.3 feet) respectively, PTWC data shows.

Ecuador’s Oceanographic Institute of the Naval Forces (INOCAR) also confirmed the first round of tsunami waves had started hitting the Galapagos Islands, with wave height reaching 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) in some areas.

Earlier on Wednesday, the island’s visitor sites were temporarily closed following the massive earthquake in Russia’s far east, according to the Galapagos National Park.

Tsunami advisories have been canceled for coastal Washington, Oregon and much of California.

Only two stretches of California coastline — one in Northern California and one along the south-central coast — remain under these alerts, as does Hawaii and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Even where tsunami advisories are no longer in effect, the ocean will “continue to fluctuate over the next several days, with strong currents possible,” the National Weather Service warned.

Chile is evacuating five prisons as the country remains on high alert for possible tsunamis after a large earthquake hit Russia’s remote east coast.

SENAPRED, Chile’s national disaster response agency, said in a statement on their website that all five are being evacuated due to their location at low elevations.

The inmates will be transferred to other prisons as part of Chile’s natural emergency protocol, according to Interior Minister Álvaro Elizalde, who spoke with CNN Chile.

“They are being transferred to other prison facilities, geographically close, with all security protocols in place,” Elizade said. “There are five (prisons), but we won’t go into further details because these are protocols that also include other very important security components.”

Around 125 aftershocks of magnitude 4.4 or greater have occurred near Russia in the more than 16 hours since massive 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast, according to data from the US Geological Survey.

Of those, three have been magnitude 6.0 or greater, with the strongest being a 6.9 that occurred about 45 minutes after the mainshock.

Strong aftershocks continue to rock the region, with a 6.4 magnitude aftershock striking around 200 miles southwest of yesterday’s main quake’s epicenter just before 11 a.m. ET Wednesday.

Aftershocks are generally strongest and most numerous in the hours to days after the main earthquake, decreasing in number and intensity as time goes on.

Here’s what to expect after a major earthquake, on average:

Video released by the health ministry in Russia’s Kamchatka region shows the moment the powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck on Wednesday while doctors were performing surgery at Kamchatka Cancer Center.

Doctors are seen holding onto the patient, surgical equipment and monitors as the room shakes violently.

“Despite the danger, the doctors remained calm and stayed with the patient until the end,” Kamchatka’s Health Minister Oleg Melnikov said. “At the moment, the patient is doing well.”

Oncologist Yana Gvozdeva, one of the doctors performing the surgery, said that the operation was already taking place when the earthquake started, according to a post on the website of Kamchatka region authorities.

“We secured the patient as much as possible so that there would be no indirect processes: the patient did not fall off the table, the instruments did not fall,” she said.

“In turn, the anesthesiologist also secured the equipment that was nearby, because without an anesthesia machine you can’t go anywhere. If the machine somehow disconnects from the patient, then the consequences, of course, can be dangerous, fatal,” Gvozdeva continued.

The doctors who performed the surgery, which was to remove a tumor, will be nominated for state awards, according to the post.

This post has been updated to include the quotes from Gvozdeva.

Medics perform surgery during earthquake

Video shows medics in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, continuing a surgery on a patient despite a powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck off Russia's far eastern coast on July 30.

00:47 • Source: CNN

Beaches in Los Angeles County have reopened after tsunami advisories for the West Coast were lifted, the county said.

Beach camp operators should also check with lifeguards before any in-water activity, the statement said.

Maritime police officers operate during an evacuation of the coastline following a tsunami advisory generated by local authorities in Vina del Mar, Chile, on Wednesday.

Chilean authorities said evacuations are underway along parts of the country’s coast due to the threat of a tsunami after the large earthquake off Russia’s far eastern coast overnight.

In social media posts on Wednesday, Chile’s national disaster response agency SENAPRED said evacuations had begun along the coasts of twelve Chilean regions.

Videos from social media geolocated by CNN show shrill sirens echoing among the port city of Iquique’s waterfront high-rises. After each round of sirens, an automated voice says “emergency” in Spanish.

On Easter Island, residents were urged to head to safety on Wednesday morning.

“Act calmly and follow the instructions of the authorities and response teams,” SENAPRED said. “During the evacuation, do not forget to consider your pet and its needs.”

SENAPRED has put the country’s entire coast, including its sparsely populated Antarctic Territory, under a “red alert” according to the agency’s website.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for “vigilance” in French Polynesia and said that all the services of the state have been mobilized in the semi-autonomous territory to “protect our fellow citizens.”

Earlier, tsunami waves started to hit the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, authorities said, around 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) away from the epicenter of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s far east.

French Polynesia is a semi-autonomous French territory consisting of dozens of islands. It spans across more than 5.3 million square kilometers of the south Pacific Ocean.

A surge of water several feet high caused a deck to break off in the Crescent City Harbor District, Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said.

“We didn’t have any injuries, fortunately, but we did sustain some damage in the Inner Boat Basin,” Rademaker said Wednesday.

“At approximately 2:40 a.m., we noticed there was a surge of water several feet in height that caused the decking of H dock to lift along its pilings. So, as the water levels continued to rise, the structure was unable to adjust, and the decking became lodged in the pilings and was eventually submerged.”

The dock was completely separated, Rademaker said.

Crescent City, in the northwest corner of California, has a long history of tsunami damage due to its geography and crescent-shaped beach. In 1964, the city suffered a tsunami that killed 11 people and destroyed 289 buildings and homes.

National Weather Service lead meteorologist Matthew Kidwell advised caution for the next 24 hours, noting that while waves are subsiding, Crescent City residents are “not out of woods.”

“The waves are slowly diminishing, but they’re pretty stubbornly persistent in Crescent City. So, most likely in the next, at some point this morning the tsunami warning will be downgraded to an advisory that still doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods,” Kidwell said. “There’s still going to be a lot of currents, strong currents throughout the day. I would expect through a lot of the day, you’ll need to be especially cautious of the ocean.”

People should stay away from beaches “all day today” and said to be “extra cautious,” he said.

Kidwell added residents should remain cautious into the evening hours. “Even once the advisory drops there could be some minor currents continuing, but overall we’re on the downward trend on the wave size,” he said.

The last tsunami warning — the highest level of alert — in effect for the United States coastline has been downgraded to a tsunami advisory. The portion of Northern California that was under the warning is now under a tsunami advisory.

Tsunami advisories are still in effect for other parts of California as well as portions of Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii as the threat of smaller tsunami waves persists.