Video circulating on social media shows the terrifying moment a large wave crashed through the door of the dining hall on a U.S. military base on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday.
The wave was powerful enough to knock doors off their hinges, toss furniture around and sweep several people off their feet on the island of Roi-Namur, which is situated in the Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll and is home to the U.S. Space and Missile Defense Command’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.
According to Erik D. Hanson, a diver stationed near the base who recorded the incident, the surge of water was caused by a combination of wind, tides and swell direction.
“It was also right after low tide at a 1.2-foot tide, so [it] could have been worse,” Hanson wrote in an Instagram post, noting in the caption that the wave was not a tsunami.
The waves were so big that they damaged the base and two nearby airports. Eighty of the approximately 120 personnel living on the island were evacuated by U.S. Army Garrison-Kwajalein Atoll officials, according to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
“Flooding from the waves damaged much of the unaccompanied personnel housing,” DVIDS said on Tuesday. “The dining facility, the chapel and the Tradewinds Theater were moderately to severely damaged … multiple areas on the island are underwater.”
Another 60 residents remained on the Roi-Namur to begin assessing damage and restoring basic services to locals.