Copyright 2000, Associated Press
November 18, 2000

Officials headed to a remote part of Papua New Guinea today to assess the damage caused by a powerful earthquake that struck the island.

The 6.8 magnitude quake, which shook the country's New Britain province at 7 a.m. today local time, was the third to hit the island nation north of Australia in as many days. U.S. seismologists initially measured it as an extremely powerful 7.9 magnitude quake, but the magnitude was later downgraded by a monitoring station in Papua New Guinea.

Michael Minja of the National Disaster Management Office said the quake struck a sparsely populated region inland of the small town of Pomio, about 460 miles northeast of Port Moresby, the capital.

No casualties or damage were immediately reported from the region. Minja said it is home to about 3,000 people, most of them living in traditional houses built from tree branches and other jungle material.

"We would assume that the provincial disaster committee is now handling the situation quite capably and that is why they are not making contact," said Minja's colleague, Kaigabu Kamnanaya.

An official in the provincial capital, Rabaul, said damage assessors were traveling to the region by boat and were not expected to report conditions before Sunday.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu issued a tsunami alert for a wide swath of the Pacific, including Guam, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, New Zealand, Fiji and American Samoa. The advisory was canceled after about two hours, but the center said some areas might experience small sea-level changes.

Authorities and local residents said two massive earthquakes that rocked northern Papua New Guinea on Thursday appeared to have caused little damage.

The first, 20 miles northeast of Rabaul, was measured as magnitude 8. The second, three hours later, was measured at 7.7. Both were strong enough to have caused widespread destruction in more heavily populated areas. Error: Unable to read footer file.