Pacific quake sets off tsunami warning
New Zealanders forced to evacuate until threat is lifted
One of the strongest earthquakes to hit the South Pacific in modern history triggered tsunami warnings across the ocean and forced thousands of people in New Zealand to evacuate coastal areas Friday. Small tsunami waves were seen, but little damage was apparent hours later.
The magnitude 8.1 quake in the Kermadec Islands region about 620 miles from New Zealand was the largest in a series of tremors over several hours, including two earlier quakes that registered magnitude 7.4 and magnitude 7.3.
The tsunami threat caused traffic jams and some chaos in New Zealand as people scrambled to get to higher ground.
In the afternoon, the National Emergency Management Agency said the threat had passed and people could return to their homes, although they should continue avoiding beaches.
After the largest quake, civil defense authorities in New Zealand told people in some coastal areas to get to higher ground. They said a damaging tsunami was possible.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cautioned the quake could cause tsunami waves of up to 10 feet in Vanuatu and up to three feet in Fiji, French Polynesia and as far away as Mexico and Peru.
Waves of one foot were measured by ocean gauges in Vanuatu, New Zealand and islands off Australia.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the strongest quake was centered near the remote Kermadec Islands at a depth of 12 miles.
The agency said in a report that the quake eclipsed the largest quake previously recorded in the region, a magnitude 8.0 in 1976.
Town planners told Stewart’s Shops Tuesday night that its plan to expand its store near Bethlehem Central High School — which includes the addition of gas pumps — doesn’t meet the requirements for the hamlet district where the shop is located.
And they told the Stewart’s engineer who is trying to usher the project through the town approval process that he shouldn’t come back until it does.
“Show us something that is going to work,” Brian Gyory, the town Planning Board chairman told Stewart’s engineer James Gillespie at the board’s meeting Tuesday night, held via Zoom due to the ongoing pandemic.
Gyory and other Planning Board members repeatedly voiced their displeasure with the plan in which Stewart’s wants to demolish its current 2,382square-foot store at the corner of Delaware and Elm avenues and build a new 3,975-square-foot store with six gas pumps.
Although many town residents have submitted emails to the town voicing their objection to the Stewart’s plan over gas service being installed and the potential that the already busy intersection will become even more congested, the Planning Board has repeatedly told Stewart’s that the plan doesn’t meet the town’s hamlet district rules, which say that new commercial buildings must be placed on the sidewalk, with parking in the rear.
Gillespie, however, says that the town’s hamlet rules conflict with Stewart’s desire to have the gas pumps at the intersection