Hawaii ‘dodged a bullet,’ says Pacific Tsunami Warning Center official

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An official at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says Hawaii “dodged a bullet” after a major earthquake in Chile sent powerful waves roiling across the Pacific.

It still will be about an hour before officials may be willing to give the all-clear in Hawaii, but there were no immediate reports of major damage around the Pacific Rim, only tidal surges that reached up to about seven feet in some island chains.

Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the tsunami center, defended the decision to urge evacuations of coastal areas, saying “better safe than sorry.”

— Associated Press

Read more about the devastation in Chile.