14 Mar 2011

Reports of property damage from tsunami in Solomon Islands

8:03 pm on 14 March 2011

Disaster officials in Solomon Islands say reports are emerging of some damage to property from Friday's tsunami, but thousands of people heeded warnings to move to higher ground.

The National Disaster Management Office says waves of about 1-point-6 metre hit Buala in Santa Isabel province.

It's director Loti Yates says people there and in other coastal areas including the national capital, Honiara heeded tsunami warnings.

But he says there have been reports of people losing belongings and canoes in coastal communities around Buala, and of damage to commercial property and goods in Isabel province

"Even in Buala, the provincial capital, about of the major businesses houses there have also lost a fair bit of their stock as the waves come in. And a lot of the fuel depot around the coastal fringes of Buala also lost a lot of their fuel drums."

Loti Yates says so far they have only received sketchy reports of damage in Malaita and Choiseul provinces.