Russia's Far East Suffers Damage From Earthquake and Tsunami

New York Times

30-07-2025

The extent of damage in Russia from the powerful earthquake and tsunami off the Kamchatka peninsula was still unclear as of Wednesday morning.
The undersea earthquake struck at 11:24 a.m. local time on Tuesday, 78 miles from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchastky, the administrative seat of Kamchatka Oblast, according to the United States Geological Survey. Minutes later, Gov. Vladimir Solodov placed Kamchatka under a tsunami warning.
Gov. Valery Limarenko of Sakhalin Oblast declared an emergency in the Severo-Kurilsk district, south of Kamchatka. Videos showed seawater inundating coastal buildings in Severo-Kurilsk on Paramushir island. Paramushir and Shumshu, both part of the Kuril Islands, were placed under a tsunami warning soon after the quake.
There were no casualties reported from the tsunami, and all 2,400 residents of Severo-Kurilsk had been evacuated, Mr. Limarenko said on Telegram. A port and a fish factory had been flooded by the tsunami, Mr. Limarenko said.
In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the facade of a kindergarten was among the infrastructure damaged by the quake. Sergey Lebedev, Kamchatka's minister for emergency situations, said that no one was injured as the kindergarten was empty when the earthquake hit.
Kamchatka authorities advised businesses to close from 1 p.m. local time, an hour and a half after the earthquake struck. They also closed volcanic parks and trekking routes in the peninsula's southern tip for the next five days, warning of seismological activity. Kamchatka has more than 100 active volcanoes that are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.