Locals in the mining township of Lihir in New Ireland Province were thrown into confusion this morning when ‘high waves’ struck the island just before lunchtime.
Locals on the island’s Londolovit Township were alerted of the event after the shorelines and reefs dried up as the water was pulled back.
Small boats that were in the sea were pushed into the town, causing flooring. Schools and business houses were shut down soon after.
Christabella Bobo, who lives near the Londolovit airport, posted on her Facebook account saying: “My dad described it as watching a movie, the sea went back till the reef was dry and then came back in dumping all the boats with it onto the shore...The stonewall at a school next to our house got destroyed. All businesses houses and schools are closed for today.”
She later said in a telephone interview that some parts of the island experienced tsunami-like waves on the shore front of the township while other areas experienced king tides.
She said one local Sekunkun Primary School had its stone walls damaged when the tides rushed in.
Engilis Dimain told Loop PNG he was sitting outside his house, located along the coast, when the knee-high tides rushed into his area, damaging the house posts.
He said the tides came rushing into the shore around 11 today.
“The waves brought rubbish and anything it could pick into the shores. The flooding has gone down and things are returning back to normal now,” Dimain told Loop PNG.
An officer from the GeoHazard and Physical Observatory office in Port Moresby, Mathew Moihoi told Loop PNG they confirmed receiving reports of the incident in Lihir today however, they are still unsure of what caused the event.
Moihoi said the GeoHazard and Physical Observatory office in Port Moresby as well as the Rabaul Volcanology Observatory office did not pick up any alerts of an earthquake which might have triggered the tsunami.
He said the office is yet to establish the extent of damages to the island but were told some areas had flooding “so at this stage we are not sure what actually happened”.
“If a distant earthquake had taken place offshore, other islands and coastal islands around the area would also experience the same.”
He said what happened today could be based on ‘some localised event’ around the mining island.