Alaska town evacuates after quake tsunami warning

Residents in a remote section of the US Aleutian islands rushed to higher ground Monday after an 7.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska triggered a local tsunami warning, an official said.
      
But the warnings were lifted an hour or two after the quake, which struck at 2053 GMT some 24 kilometers southeast of remote Little Sitkin Island, in the western Aleutians.
      
No major damage was reported from the quake, which was initially registered at 8.0 and whose epicenter was about a depth of about 70 miles. It was followed by a series of aftershocks, including one 6.0 in magnitude.
      
"There was no panic," Layton Lockett, city manager in the town of Adak, told AFP after he sounded the alarms to evacuate the 150 or so villagers and Navy contractors to higher ground.
      
"We're a rough and tumble kind of group. We're used to certain types of earthquake, some are stronger.. this one was a little bit more," he added, saying that everyone was back down two hours after initial alert.
      
The National Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a warning for coastal areas from Nikolski on Umnak Island to Attu Island at the far western end of the Aleutians.        

In those areas, "widespread dangerous coastal flooding accompanied by powerful currents are possible, and may continue for many hours after tsunami arrival."       

It also said the level of tsunami danger for other US and Canadian Pacific coasts was being evaluated. But the warning triggered by the quake was later downgraded to an advisory.        

Lockett said locals are used to earthquakes -- and official brief Navy contractors who arrive for stays working on the remote...