Japan tsunami grazes Americas but impact light

SAN FRANCISCO/SANTIAGO, (Reuters) – Tsunamis  triggered by Japan’s devastating earthquake that prompted  evacuations on the Pacific coast of North and South America  caused flooding as far away as Chile today, but damage  was limited.
The tsunami lost much of its energy as it moved thousands  of miles (km) across the Pacific Ocean, although governments  took no chances and ordered large-scale evacuations of coastal  areas, ports and refineries.
Despite the power of Japan’s biggest-ever quake that killed  at least 1,300 people, the tsunami waves were relatively benign  as they rolled into the Americas, causing only isolated  flooding, and fears of a catastrophe proved unfounded.
The tsunami swept past Chile’s remote Easter Island in the  South Pacific, generating swells but no major waves. Wooden  chalets on Chile’s northern coast were damaged and some small  boats were swept away when the tsunamis intensified, local  television footage showed.
The sea later flooded as far as 330 feet (100 meters)  inland in Dichato and Talcahuano, some 310 miles (500 km) south  of the capital Santiago and near the epicenter of the massive  8.8 magnitude quake that struck Chile in February 2010.
The government stopped residents from returning to their  coastal homes until this afternoon as a precaution.
But the damage appeared relatively mild and officials on  Saturday reopened copper exporting ports that had been closed  as a precautionary measure ahead of the tsunami and recalled  large ships sent out to sea to avoid damage.
“The alert is now over. People can be confident the danger  is over,” said government spokeswoman Ena Von Baer, adding  fishermen should remain cautious because of swells and  currents.
Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, a wildlife sanctuary and  popular tourist spot, suffered some damage to infrastructure,  and several harbors in California were hit.
Frank Boyle, president of Peru’s port authority, said the  northern port of Paita and the southern ports of Ilo and  Matarani were reopened.
Peru’s key central mining port of El Callao remained  closed, as did the southern port of Pisco, where Reposl exports  natural gas. Another mining terminal used by Shougang Hierro  Peru was still out of action.
“The situation’s going to be evaluated and on the basis of  that, we’ll gradually be reopening the ports,” Boyle told  Reuters.
U.S. HARBORS SMASHED
About 35 boats and most of the harbor docks were damaged in  Crescent City near the California border with Oregon, where  waves were more than 6 feet (2 metres). Santa Cruz south of San  Francisco sustained about $2 million in damages to docks and  vessels, emergency management officials said.
A 25-year-old man was swept out to sea while standing on a  sandbar at the mouth of the Klamath River in California.
The port of Brookings-Harbor, the busiest recreation port  on the Oregon coast, was largely destroyed, said operations  manager Chris Cantwell. “Right now we are in the middle of a  big mess,” he said. “The surge pulled some (boats) out to sea,  about a dozen sank and we’ve got boats everywhere sitting on  top of one another and all over the place.”
In Hawaii, 3,800 miles (6,200 km) from Japan, the main  airports on at least three of the major islands — Maui, Kauai  and the Big Island of Hawaii — were shut down as a precaution  on Friday, when the U.S. Navy ordered all warships in Pearl  Harbor to remain in port to support rescue missions as needed.
No injuries or property damage were reported after a series  of four tsunami waves hit the Hawaiian island of Oahu, said  John Cummings, a spokesman for emergency management in  Honolulu. The tsunami warning for Hawaii was later lifted.
Ecuador took extreme precautions after President Rafael  Correa declared a state of emergency across the Andean nation  on national television and urged residents to move inland.
Oil firm Petroecuador also halted production, but navy  officials said on Friday night that the risk of danger had  passed.
Many ports along Mexico’s western coast closed, including  Los Cabos and Salina Cruz in southern Oaxaca, the only  oil-exporting terminal on the country’s Pacific side.
Mexican officials said high waves had hit the northwestern  Pacific coast but there were no reports of damage.
Authorities in Canada’s British Columbia advised residents  to evacuate marinas, beaches and low-lying areas. Officials  there said the waves were minimal.