Hawaii officials downgraded tsunami warnings and lifted evacuation orders late on Tuesday, saying the threat of major damage to the state appeared to have passed.
High waters swept the islands after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest on record, struck off Russia’s eastern coast, prompting alerts across the Pacific.
“So far, we have not seen a wave of consequence, which is a great relief,” Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii said as the surge spent itself on the island’s scenic beaches. Residents had largely heeded early warnings to move to higher ground.
After passing Hawaii, the tsunami risk moved to the West Coast of the United States and to other Pacific nations.
The first waves arrived in Hawaii about 7:24 p.m. local time, according to data from a water gauge at Nawiliwili, Hawaii, on the coast of Kauai. The withdrawing sea exposed great stretches of sand and then rushed back fiercely, surging a foot above the predicted level.
Waters appeared to peak at 5.7 feet above normal on Kahului, a community on Maui, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
Emergency authorities had warned that the cumulative force could cause widespread flooding, with the potential to threaten the electric grid, move cars, damage houses and drown people who had failed to move to safety.
But the resulting waves were modest compared with major tsunamis that leveled parts of the island in the past. The early warnings seemed to have helped to minimize danger.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center downgraded the warning covering the state to a more mild advisory at 10:38 p.m. Hawaii County and Oahu lifted evacuation orders not long after.
As the coming surge was first detected, sirens and cellphone alerts blared across Hawaii’s islands on Tuesday afternoon. Warnings came on the hour and then on the half-hour as the potential emergency drew nearer, urging residents to move inland or to higher elevations from coastal “inundation zones.” The first waves, the governor said, would probably hit the island of Kauai, but the force would “wrap around the islands,” creating a statewide threat.
On Hawaii’s Big Island, a cruise ship docked in Kailua-Kona harbor summoned its passengers back to the boat with a siren and departed for deeper waters offshore, which is considered safer than staying in port. Police officers warned tourists at food trucks to leave.
Jennifer Locke, who runs a wine company and was on the island for a company event for 24 people, said she had been making a Costco run when the staff at the Mauna Lani hotel, on the beach north of Kona, called to warn her. As she made her way back to the hotel, she said in a telephone interview that the hotel had arranged for its guests to head to the golf course but that she and her husband were hoping to move to ground that was even higher.
“As the day has progressed,” she said, “my level of anxiety has definitely increased.”
On Oahu, where Honolulu is, many people chose not to wait for official instructions and simply fled, clogging mountain roads.
Jake DiPaola, a 39-year-old retired Coast Guard chief, said he found himself stuck near the Ala Moana Center, a mall, after emergency sirens and a lifeguard on a JetSki persuaded him to get out of the water where he had been surfing earlier Tuesday.
“People are driving like idiots,” he said. “I have moved 100 feet in the last hour.”
Emergency authorities in the state said that all major ports and Hilo International Airport had been closed as a precaution and that tourists on Kauai were urged to avoid scenic Hanalei to allow people there to evacuate. On Maui, emergency vehicles and equipment were staged along highways.
Governor Green, a physician, said that hospitals had added shifts, that outreach workers were moving homeless people to safety and that he had mobilized two medical evacuation aircraft on Oahu with search-and-rescue capabilities.
National Guard troops were also being deployed, he said, for a variety of disaster-related duties, including operating heavy ground equipment should it be needed.
As the waves rolled and grew, however, the impact played out on largely empty shores.
The earthquake struck about 78 miles east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia at 7:24 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It could be the sixth-strongest earthquake ever recorded, according to the Geological Survey, whose seismologists often revise the magnitude of earthquakes as they gather more data.
Tsunami warnings were also issued for Japan’s Pacific coast and for two eastern regions of Russia, and watches and advisories were in effect along the West Coast of the United States and as far away as Chile. The National Weather Service warned people in California to stay away from beaches and waterways.
Heather Knight is a reporter in San Francisco, leading The Times’s coverage of the Bay Area and Northern California.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
Shawn Hubler is The Times’s Los Angeles bureau chief, reporting on the news, trends and personalities of Southern California.
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