The coastlines of some parts of the San Francisco Bay Area were hit by huge waves following the volcanic eruption near Tonga on Friday evening, SFGATE reported.
A tsunami advisory was released for the West Coast on Saturday and was said to affect parts of the San Francisco Bay Area and coastal California.
Palmer, Alaska’s National Tsunami Warning Center tsunami warning coordinator Dave Snider called the event “humbling and scary” as it is very uncommon for a volcanic eruption’s effect to cover the whole ocean basin.
Around the Bay Area, residents in the coastal communities are told to avoid going near the beaches.
An evacuation order for the Marina district was also issued by the Berkeley Fire Department and remained in effect until nearly 5 in the afternoon.
Three water rescues were called in San Francisco. In one emergency situation, a surfer’s board off Ocean Beach was destroyed due to the strong waves. The surfer was rescued through the help of the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, rescue swimmers from the fire department, and a rescue boat.
A drowning incident involving two men was also reported off San Gregorio State Beach in San Mateo County. A sheriff’s deputy who responded to the location saw a man around the cliff’s corner, waving. He was submerged in the ocean water at knee-level as he was trying to save another one who seemed to be unconscious, face down in the water.
The deputy came into the water, a sheriff’s department spokesperson said, and he helped get the unconscious man out of the ocean. The man was brought to a local treatment facility.
The huge waves from the tsunami were also recorded in videos as they affected parts of the Bay Area.
One of the residents who witnessed the event was Savannah Peterson who lives in front of the ocean in Pacifica. She saw the large waves wallowing into her patio and even crashed into a walking man.
“It came up so fast, and a few minutes after that it was down again. It was nuts to see that happen so quickly,” she said. “I’ve never had water come all the way up to my front door, and today it did.”
