Ventura Tsunami in California Anti-Climatic: Tsunami Watch CA

by Amy Judd | February 27, 2010 at 04:29 pm

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After the 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile Saturday morning, and tsunami warnings were issued for areas such as Australia, Peru and Hawaii (where evacuation orders were put in place to move people to higher ground), residents on the west coast of the United States, such as Ventura in California were also told they may see the tsunami on their beaches.

However, the expected tsunmai turned out to be a little anti-climatic as residents gathered near the beaches to watch the tide.

According to the National Weather Service, waves were expcted in Ventura to get about 3 feet high and about 2.2 feet high in Santa Monica. As the LA Times reports however, some people could not even detect the waves. Some buoys were washed away offshore however.

No other damage has been reported at this time.

Los Angeles County fire officials said they were not warning people to stay off beaches because they did not expect waves to rise more than 3 feet. The surges occurred during low tide, lessening the chances of problems.

Looks like California was lucky the tsunami wasn't bigger.