Powerful Waves Slam U.S. Army Base in the Marshall Islands

A surge of unexpected waves swamped the island of Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands on Saturday, forcing evacuations from a U.S. Military base and causing damage that could take months to repair.

A video from inside a building at U.S. Army Garrison Kwajalein Atoll that circulated widely on social media showed a surge of water crashing through a set of double doors, knocking them off their hinges and upending people who were standing nearby. Another burst of water rushed through the windows, forcing the people to wade through waist-high water as furniture and vegetation floated around them.

Roi-Namur is a small island about 2,300 miles southwest of Hawaii and is the second-largest island of the Kwajalein Atoll, a loop of coral reefs in the Marshall Islands.