Tsunami Warning in Affect for 20 Countries

The threat of a tsunami prompted the U.S. National Weather Service to issue a warning for at least 20 countries and numerous Pacific islands after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Japan Friday.

The wide-ranging list includes Russia and Indonesia, Central American countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica and the U.S. state of Hawaii. The weather service's bulletin is intended "as advice to government agencies."

The strongest quake in Japan in at least a century struck at 2:46 p.m. local time 81 miles off the coast of Sendai, north of Tokyo. Buildings shook in the capital, and television footage showed a wave of water as high as 10 meters engulfing farmhouses and roads along the coast. Fires broke out in an oil plant and buildings in Tokyo.

Waves traveling as fast as 800 kilometers an hour may be radiating from the epicenter, sparking warnings in countries that lie in their path. The quake is the strongest since a 9.1 magnitude earthquae off North Sumatra in Indonesia in December 2004 left about 220,000 people dead or missing in 12 countries around the Indian Ocean.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned that the tsunami is currently higher than some Pacific islands which it could wash over.

Hawaii is possibly in the path of a tsunami.  The tsunami warning issued late on Thursday for Hawaii prompted civil defense officials to order all Hawaiian coastal areas evacuated. The warning said that all islands in the Hawaiian chain were in the path of potential damage from a tsunami generated by the quake.