The eastern coast of Majuro appeared to be hardest hit, with waves slamming seawalls and rolling onto the roads and flooding houses on this low-lying atoll. There were no reported injuries, and damage appeared slight, though the clean up job is likely to take several days.
Tuesday’s 1:30 p.m. high tide was only slightly over four feet (1.2 meters) — nearly two feet less than when “king tides” traditionally hit in January and February — but it coincided with high waves generated from a low-pressure weather system in the Wake Island area, about 500 miles north of Majuro.
“The wave train peaked today coinciding with the high tide,” said Majuro Weather Station chief Reginald White. The low-pressure system that is moving west caused the nine-to-ten foot waves to roll in.
“It shows that we’re extremely vulnerable” to small changes in the environment, said Office of Environmental Planning and Policy Coordination deputy director Deborah Manase said Tuesday. “We’re lucky. If the tide had been two feet higher, it would have been much worse.”
While Tuesday’s high tide was 4.1 feet, tides on Saturday this week will peak at 5.5 feet. But White believes the worst may be over. He said that the high wave alert is continuing the rest of the week, but that it looked like the waves would drop to eight feet by Tuesday evening. “The public needs to be cautious,” he said. “Even if the swells are not nine feet, we’ll continue to have rip currents this week and next.”
