The island’s tsunami preparations and response were put to the test on Wednesday. 

Guam and the CNMI were on standby for hours under a tsunami advisory, triggered by an intense earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 off of Russia. 

Officials warned of hazardous sea level fluctuations and strong ocean currents, expecting waves up to three feet at 2:37 p.m. 

Locally, while there have been several tsunami watches throughout the years, they’ve been quickly canceled.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Landon Aydlett says it’s been about 14 years since Guam has seen a high tsunami threat. 

“It’s definitely not a foreign situation for us in this region. Most notably, the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami event, we were put right into a tsunami warning here in Guam and the CNMI. So we were under a tsunami warning for a period of hours, from the initial earthquake and the passage of that wave,” said Aydlett. 

Guam Homeland Security And Office Of Civil Defense Jenna Blas spoke with KUAM earlier Wednesday as emergency management officials kept their eye on the developing event. 

We’ve been in close communication with the National Weather Service as well as the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. So we’ve been receiving updates on the hour. We’ve been helping to get that information out into the community. We’ve definitely looped in a lot of our partners communication wise.

A handful of primary agencies were on standby to gather at the Marianas Regional Fusion Center. 

The U.S. Coast Guard set Guam and the CNMI ports to heavy weather conditions yankee by 11 a.m. and the Port Authority of Guam suspended all Port operations for a few hours. 

Plus, some businesses closed up shop out of an abundance of caution.  

Overall, Aydlett says it was good practice, saying, “These are not frequent events. So there’s going to be a wide range of speculation and expectations. These events can be very high impact, but they’re very infrequent events. So this is why we have to err on the side of caution for all government actions and communications. But also, it’s always a learning experience.”

Meanwhile, tsunami alerts have been issued around the world, including Russia, Hawaii, Alaska and Japan, whose coast was reportedly hit with tsunami waves Wednesday afternoon.