Tsunami warning issued for New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, please pray Articles / In The News Date: May 03, 2006 - 01:34 PM Tsunami warning issued for New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, please pray A tsunami warning was issued for New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and the Samoa islands Wednesday after an 7.8 earthquake struck near the South Pacific island nation of Tonga. The temblor, classified by the U.S. Geological Survey as a “great” quake, struck 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. It occurred 20 miles beneath the sea floor. A Tongan police officer in the capital, Nuku'alofa, said there were no immediate reports of damage or a tsunami. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the alert, adding that it did not immediately know if a tsunami had been generated by the large quake. "This warning is based only on the earthquake evaluation," it said in a statement. "An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours." The advisory said that if a tsunami was generated it could strike Fiji within an hour and New Zealand within two. A tsunami advisory, which is less severe than a warning, was issued for Hawaii, but those islands were not expected to see damage if a tsunami was created. Tonga, a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti, has a population of about 108,000 and an economy dependent on pumpkin and vanilla exports, fishing, foreign aid and remittances from Tongans abroad. On Dec. 26, 2004, the most powerful earthquake in four decades — magnitude 9.0 — ripped apart the Indian Ocean floor off Indonesia’s Sumatra island, displacing millions of tons of water and spawning giant waves that sped off in all directions. The tsunami left at least 216,000 people dead or missing in a dozen nations. This report will be updated as information becomes available. Please click here to read the whole story and post a prayer. This article comes from World's Largest Prayer Board Annointed.net News http://www.annointed.net/ The URL for this story is: http://www.annointed.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1016