SAN FRANCISCO/QUITO (Reuters) – Thousands of people fled their homes along the Pacific coast of North and South America on Friday as a tsunami triggered by Japan's massive earthquake reached the region but spared it from major damage.

The giant wall of water lost much of its energy as it roared thousands of miles (km) across the Pacific Ocean, although many governments took no chances, ordering large-scale evacuations of coastal areas, ports and refineries.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center downgraded the situation in California from a tsunami "warning" to an "advisory," and fears of a catastrophe proved unfounded.

Despite the power of Japan's biggest-ever earthquake that killed at least 1,300 people, the tsunami waves were relatively benign as they rolled into the Americas, causing only isolated flooding.

"Mexico is no longer in danger," Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in a post on his official Twitter account.

Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, a wildlife sanctuary and popular tourist spot, suffered some damage to infrastructure. and several California harbors were hit. Chile, which was hit by a magnitude 8.8 quake and ensuing tsunamis a year ago that killed more than 500 people, appeared to be unscathed.

Residents in northern Chile said the coast was calm some time after waves had been expected to make landfall.

Peru, which evacuated thousands, was also largely unaffected.

About 35 boats and most of the harbor docks were damaged in Crescent City near the California border with Oregon, where waves were more than 6 feet. Santa Cruz south of San Francisco sustained about $2 million in damages to docks and vessels, emergency management officials said.

Rescue services were searching for a 25-year-old man who was swept out to sea while standing on a sandbar at the mouth of the Klamath River in California.

The port of Brookings-Harbor, the busiest recreation port on the Oregon coast, was largely destroyed, said operations manager Chris Cantwell. "Right now we are in the middle of a big mess," he said. "The surge pulled some (boats) out to sea, about a dozen sank and we've got boats everywhere sitting on top of one another and all over the place."

SIRENS BLARE, OIL ON HOLD

In Hawaii, 3,800 miles from Japan, the main airports on at least three of the major islands -- Maui, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii -- were shut down as a precaution, and the U.S. Navy ordered all warships in Pearl Harbor to remain in port to support rescue missions as needed.

Civil defense sirens blared statewide, starting shortly before 10 p.m. local time, and police with bullhorns urged residents near shore to seek higher ground.

No injuries or property damage were reported after a series of four tsunami waves hit the Hawaiian island of Oahu, said John Cummings, a spokesman for emergency management in Honolulu. The tsunami warning for Hawaii was later downgraded.

President Barack Obama, a native of Hawaii, was notified of the massive Japanese quake at 4 a.m./0900 GMT and instructed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be prepared to help affected U.S. states and territories, the White House said.

Ecuador took extreme precautions after President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency across the Andean nation on national television and urged residents to move inland.

Oil firm Petroecuador also halted production, but navy officials said on Friday night that the risk of danger had passed.

Many ports along Mexico's western coast closed, including Los Cabos and Salina Cruz in southern Oaxaca, the only oil-exporting terminal on the country's Pacific side.

Mexican officials said high waves had hit the northwestern Pacific coast but there were no reports of damage.

Authorities in Canada's British Columbia advised residents to evacuate marinas, beaches and other low-lying areas, but officials there said the waves were minimal.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, Braden Reddall and Peter Henderson in San Francisco, Suzanne Roig and Jorene Barut in Honolulu, Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Simon Gardner in Santiago; Anahi Rama, Cyntia Barrera Diaz, Mica Rosenberg and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico; Writing by Frances Kerry, Ross Colvin and Robin Emmott; Editing by Peter Cooney)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Energy companies with operations along the Pacific coast of North and South America were on alert on Friday for the possibility of a tsunami set off by a massive earthquake off Japan.

Chile, hit by an 8.8 magnitude quake last year, upgraded a tsunami alert for its coastline and the remote Easter Island and said it would evacuate flood-prone areas along the mainland coast.

By midday, the tsunami passed Hawaii by and Chevron Corp said there was no impact to operations at its 54,000 barrel per day refinery in Honolulu, Hawaii which contained to make products.

Tesoro Corp which owns Hawaii's other refinery - a 93,500 bpd refinery in Kapolei, said earlier it closed a few retail stations in some low lying areas of Hawaii as a precaution and was monitoring operations at its refineries in Hawaii, Alaska, California and Washington.

Tidal surges in the Hawaiian island chain were generally little higher than normal, officials said, and there were no reports of injuries or severe inland property damage.

The island state of Hawaii had ordered evacuations of its coastal areas and braced for a tidal wave hours after the massive 8.9 earthquake in Japan, 3,800 miles away, triggered the tsunami warning across most of the Pacific basin, including northern California and Oregon.

An Obama administration official said Hawaii appeared to be out of danger, but some risk remained for the U.S. West Coast.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) said it was coordinating with local officials on the U.S. West Coast and in Hawaii on a response if needed.

Shipping operations at California ports were restricted.

The Port of Los Angeles suspended transfer of hazardous material ahead of a suspected 12 to 18-inch (30-46-cm) surge.

Beaches near the port have been closed off.

The port of San Francisco suspended oil and hazardous materials transfer as it expected a 3-foot surge.

The port of San Diego, located in the southern part of California, said it expects no impact from the tsunami.

In Mexico, state-run oil company Pemex evacuated 300 workers from its only oil port on the Pacific coast after a tsunami warning rippled down Latin America.

Further south in Ecuador, state oil company Petroecuador declared a precautionary force majeure on its oil exports but expected exports to return to normal by Saturday. Petroecuador produces about 145,000 bpd.

OPS NORMAL, TSUNAMI MONITORED

Valero Energy Corp, which operates a two refineries in California, said it was monitoring reports regarding the tsunami alert but had not altered production at its refineries.

BP Plc said it was monitoring the situation at its West Coast refineries while Shell said operations were normal at their plants.

Nuclear power plant operator PG&E Corp said it declared an unusual event at its Diablo Canyon power plant in California due to the tsunami warning, which is normal operating procedure at the California but both reactors there were operating normally.

Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International, said workers would be monitoring "unusual small waves" that were likely to hit the coast.

"The San Onofre plant was designed with a 30-foot (9-meter) tsunami protective wall," company spokesman Gil Alexander said in response to a question on what safety measures the plant would be undertaking.

Both reactors at San Onofre plant were operating normally, he added.

(Reporting by Reuters America Energy Reporters and Bangalore Energy Desk, writing by Janet McGurty; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

DETROIT (Reuters) – Kia Motors Corp is recalling more than 70,000 Optima sedans because the shift cable may have been installed incorrectly and cause parked vehicles to roll away.

There have been no reported injuries related to this defect, Kia said in a notice to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration posted on Friday.

The recall affects model year 2006 through 2008 Optima cars produced from September 2005 to June 2007. In all, the recall affects 70,115 vehicles.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Bernard Orr)