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CRESCENT CITY, Calif. — The warnings traveled quickly across the Pacific in the middle of the night: An 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan spawned a deadly tsunami, and it was racing east Friday as fast as a jetliner.
Sirens blared in Hawaii. The West Coast pulled back from the shoreline, fearing the worst. People were warned to stay away from the beaches. Fishermen took their boats out to sea and safety.
The alerts moved faster than the waves, giving millions of people across the Pacific Rim hours to prepare.
In the end, harbors and marinas in California and Oregon bore the brunt of the damage, estimated by authorities to be in the millions of dollars. Boats crashed into each other, some vessels were pulled out to sea and docks were ripped out. Rescue crews searched for a man who was swept out to sea while taking pictures.
None of the damage — in the U.S., South America or Canada — was anything like the devastation in Japan.
The warnings — the second major one for the region in a year — and the response showed how far the earthquake-prone Pacific Rim had come since a deadly tsunami caught much of Asia by surprise in 2004.
“That was a different era,” said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. “We got the warning out very quickly. It would not have been possible to do it that fast in 2004.”
Within 10 minutes after Japan was shaken by its biggest earthquake in recorded history, the center had issued its warning. The offshore quake pushed water onto land, sometimes miles inland, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people. Hundreds are dead.
As the tsunami raced across the Pacific at 500 mph, the first sirens began sounding across Hawaii late Thursday night.
Police went through the tourist mecca of Waikiki, warning of an approaching tsunami. Hotels moved tourists from lower floors to upper levels. Some tourists ended up spending the night in their cars.
Across the islands, people stocked up on bottled water, canned foods and toilet paper. Authorities opened buildings to people fleeing low-lying areas. Fishermen took their boats out to sea, away from harbors and marinas where the waves would be most intense.
Residents did the same last February, when an 8.8-magnitude quake in Chile prompted tsunami warnings. The waves did little damage then.
Early Friday, the tsunami waves reached Hawaii, tossing boats in Honolulu. The water covered beachfront roads and rushed into hotels. The waves carried a house out to sea.
In Oregon, the first swells to hit the U.S. mainland were barely noticeable.
In Crescent City, Calif., miles to the south, the Coast Guard searched for a man who was swept out to sea.
On the central coast in Santa Cruz, loose fishing boats crashed into one another and docks broke into shore.