Cruise ships departed ports in Hawaii at short notice after tsunami warnings were issued following a powerful quake, leaving passengers stranded ashore.
The 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s eastern coast, triggering tsunami advisories and warnings across the Pacific, including Hawaii. The quake prompted officials to issue evacuation orders and sound tsunami sirens statewide.
Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America, docked in Hilo, departed abruptly before its scheduled 6 p.m. HST departure. This is standard practice during tsunami warnings, as ships at sea are far less affected by tsunami waves than vessels moored in a harbor, Cruise Fever reported.
The sudden departure left many passengers unable to return to the ship. One of them, Joseph Brandon DiPietro, described the situation in a series of public Facebook posts. He said he was about 20 minutes from the port when he received an urgent alert stating the cruise ship would depart immediately “as directed by the Department of Transportation.”
“If you’re not in the vicinity of the port, seek higher ground and follow the direction of the local authorities for your safety. This precautionary measure is being taken to ensure the safety of our guests and crew. Our onboard team will keep you informed of any additional updates or changes,” the alert reportedly said.
DiPietro later wrote that his group had been taken by their tour guide to a friend’s house after Hilo High School, a designated evacuation site, closed its doors.
“Ship has left us. Being taken to Evacuation zone, Hilo highschool. Well keep you updated. Lord keep us safe.”
“Update 5:51pm: Hilo highschool is closed for evacuation. Our tour guide Mike is taking us to a friends house. Going absolutely above and beyond. First wave is supposed to hit in hour and half. Around 710pm Hawaiian time,” he wrote.
Other cruise ship passengers shared their disbelief online.
One TikTok user, @demifreeman, posted a video that said: “POV: tsunami in Hawaii and your cruise is leaving without people. Actually insane. We are going to be in the middle of the tsunami in the ocean.”
Another TikTok user, @mandythecruiseplanner, filmed a video of a bus full of passengers writing in a caption: “We missed the ship. They are taking us to higher ground.”
“We made it to the port, but the ship is leaving, and now we are going to higher ground,” she said.
She described the situation as “crazy” and “chaos” and said people were crying.
“Nobody knows what’s going on, the bus driver had no idea what was happening… we’re terrified for us. We’re going to be going to higher ground now,” she said.
British tourist Rachael Burrows described a similar scene. She told BBC Breakfast passengers were left stranded as they missed their cruise ship’s abrupt departure. Her tour group was on the last leg of a tour around the volcanic area of the Big Island when she received an alert.
“Towards the end of the tour, as we were luckily heading towards the cruise ship, we started getting emergency warnings sign on our phones,” she said. “The first one was said, ‘You are in immediate danger, you need to move away from the coast to higher ground.’”
Burrows explained: “It was quite scary because all the sirens started going off in the area.”
“We got off the tour bus and everyone was running trying to get on the cruise ship, because we needed to get out to sea.
“We were luckily some of the last ones to get on the cruise ship.
“Then we could see a lot of other people getting dropped off and lining up, but they didn’t make it.”
Tsunami waves reached Hawaii shortly after 7 p.m. local time. By 10:45 p.m., officials said the Tsunami Warning System had downgraded the threat level for the state from a warning to an advisory. No significant damage was reported.
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