Solomon Islands
A huge undersea earthquake sent a wall of water 30 feet high slamming into the Solomon Islands this week, washing away hundreds of buildings. At least 28 people were killed in the town of Gizo, as the wave sucked waterfront homes into the ocean. “It was just a noise like an underground explosion,” Gizo resident Dorothy Parkinson told Australia’s Nine Network television. “The wave came almost instantaneously. Everything that was standing is flattened.” Some 4,000 people in the town of 7,000 retreated to higher ground to await rescue teams. The police said that those who venture into the devastated city may “loot” what they need to stay alive. “They are desperate times in Gizo,” said deputy police commissioner Peter Marshall. “And we’ve got to be practical.”
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