Tsunami evacuations ordered in South America, but worst risk appears to pass for US after huge quake

By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Audrey McAvoy, Mari Yamaguchi and Vladimir Isachenkov

Fears of a devastating tsunami faded Wednesday for the U.S. and Japan after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off a sparsely populated Russian peninsula, but new alerts along South America’s Pacific coast forced evacuations and closed beaches.

Warnings in the first hours after the 8.8 magnitude quake sent residents fleeing to rooftops in Japan and forced tourists out of beachfront hotels in Hawaii, snarling island traffic. In Russia, several people were hurt while rushing out of buildings, including a hospital patient who jumped from a window.

Millions of people were told to move away from the shore or seek high ground because they were potentially in the path of the tsunami waves, which struck seaside areas of Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast but did not appear to cause any major damage.

The dire warnings following the massive quake early Wednesday off Russia’s