A storm surge leaves Ngatik awash for eight days and kills all its breadfruit; Pingelap also has a surge.

What happened

Ngatik stayed under water for eight days, and many people survived only by climbing into the tops of coconut palms; half the coconut trees were uprooted, all livestock was lost and the island’s southwest corner lost about 10 acres. Spennemann thinks a sustained sea surge (a “westerly burst”) more likely than a typhoon, since the water stayed so long.