It was the wave that thankfully hasn’t been so far even as the islands are still under a downgraded advisory. However, for Hawaii travel, the damage has already been felt to keep everyone safe.
This has been updated on July 30. Yesterday, after the magnitude 8.8 earthquake near Kamchatka, Russia, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a full warning for the state of Hawaii.
Within hours, nearly everything that makes Hawaii function for visitors came to a halt. Sirens blaring. Roads jammed. Flights stopped. Hotels evacuated. Some airports shut down. Ports closed. And travelers, who had already checked out of their rooms, were suddenly left with nowhere to go except shelters.
The Alaska Airlines call center had a backup of nearly three hours of wait time by 7 p.m. That added another layer of frustration for travelers trying to figure out precisely what their options were.
Emergency officials ordered evacuations from all beaches and low-lying areas across the islands, the very places where visitors tend to be during the height of summer vacation. From Waikiki to Hanalei Bay to Kaanapali, beachfronts emptied as sirens echoed across the state and tourists were told to either move inland or climb at least four floors in coastal hotels.
Update: As of press time, Hawaiian Airlines resumed flight operations on Tuesday evening as airports began reopening across the state. Alaska Airlines said it would resume service Wednesday morning, following a full-day pause triggered by the warning. Both airlines advised travelers to confirm flight status before heading to the airport, noting that operational issues could still occur. Flexible waivers remain in place for those who need to adjust their travel plans.
Even Oprah stepped in to help.
A spokesperson for Oprah Winfrey confirmed that her private road on Maui was opened during Tuesday’s tsunami warning to help residents evacuate inland. Law enforcement managed the flow of vehicles, allowing about 50 cars through at a time. The road will stay open as long as needed.
Earlier in the day, Oprah faced online criticism over claims that the road remained closed, despite traffic backing up from Wailea to Kula, although those posts were unverified.
Why Hawaii froze after the warning.
The tsunami warning went out just before 3 p.m. after a massive undersea earthquake. With wave arrival expected just after 7 p.m., Hawaii officials moved fast. Governor Josh Green held a press conference and urged immediate evacuation from all coastal zones as sirens blared across every island. Visitors were advised to leave the beaches, stay off the roads, and head to higher ground or the upper floors of hotels.
What followed was a full system-wide pause. Flights were halted out of caution, and those in the air were diverted away from Hawaii. Suddenly, there were no planes to either bring people in or take them out of the islands. Public transit stopped. Evacuation routes were opened or rerouted. Hotel operations were interrupted. Countless thousands of travelers suddenly had no way in or out and little idea what to do next. Although the wave itself has so far turned out to be less than expected, the disruption to Hawaii’s visitor infrastructure was complete.
Flight disruptions cripple Hawaii travel.
Airlines placed all incoming flights to the islands on hold. Aircraft already en route to Hawaii were turned back or diverted mid-air. By 8 p.m. HST, Honolulu Airport (HNL) had logged more than 110 delayed and cancelled flights. That included flights across the board, including those operated by Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Alaska Airlines. Even Delta, United, and American, with fewer departures, canceled a significant percentage of their flights.
At Maui’s Kahului Airport, nearly 50 delays and cancellations were recorded across all airlines.
Kona’s Ellison Onizuka Airport had 34 delays and cancellations. Alaska delayed half its departures from Kona and canceled others. Southwest also suffered significant problems, as did Hawaiian.
Lihue Airport reported 26 cancellations and delays. That included Southwest and Hawaiian cancelling or delaying a significant number of flights. Alaska canceled 25 percent of its scheduled Lihue service as well.
Additionally, Hilo International Airport was affected, with 15 flights canceled outright and additional delays. Half of Southwest’s flights and over a third of Hawaiian’s were canceled after the airport shut down in the afternoon to allow access to higher ground for residents and visitors.
Across all islands, the flight freeze rippled through both outbound and interisland service. With planes unable to land, evening departures were removed from the boards. Some travelers watched as their flights were canceled after they had already arrived at the airport, only to realize there was no inbound aircraft to take them home and nowhere to go except to a shelter.
Alaska Airlines offered flexible waivers for guests traveling to or from Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Kona, not just that evening but extending through Wednesday, as delays and diversions rippled well beyond the initial problems. Hawaiian Airlines urged passengers to double-check their flight status before leaving for the airport, as conditions shifted very rapidly across the state.
Hotel evacuations create a visitor crisis.
Coastal hotels across the state implemented vertical evacuations, including asking guests in high-rises to move to the fourth floor or higher. On Maui and Kauai, beachfront properties followed similar procedures, with many guests confused about whether to shelter in place or head inland.
The situation was particularly unclear for guests who had already checked out during the day. With new arrivals halted, there was no natural turnover in rooms. Some front desks reportedly accommodated returning guests whose flights had been canceled, but others had already committed rooms to inbound passengers who never made it. It created a highly unusual hotel limbo that few properties were prepared for.
Hawaii roads collapse under tsunami panic.
By 6 p.m., Oahu’s transportation system was effectively paused. The Skyline rail shut down. TheBus and HandiVan stopped evening service. The Department of Transportation opened normally closed routes, such as Kolekole Pass, to assist with evacuation from leeward coastal areas. Contraflow lanes were suspended, and traffic poured inland in every direction.
On the Big Island, Hilo’s near-coastal roads were closed as emergency teams repositioned vehicles and cleared zones most vulnerable to inundation. DOT pulled all highway equipment out of inundation zones and pre-staged vehicles to assist with response and recovery.
In Honolulu, as on the neighboring islands, severe traffic backups occurred as people tried to reach shelter or evacuate low-lying areas. Emergency officials advised residents and visitors not to get on the roads unless necessary, but the message came after some travelers had already begun trying to reach the airports.
In addition, gas stations and stores were overwhelmed, with some businesses closing abruptly.
Hawaii ports close, and the military moves in.
The U.S. Coast Guard issued orders to evacuate all commercial harbors across the state. Harbors were closed to incoming traffic as the wave approached. Military aircraft were placed on standby, with medevac and search-and-rescue assets activated by the state’s adjutant general. Coast Guard aircraft were deployed to monitor conditions over Kauai.
Kalaupapa Airport on Molokai began preparing for lighthouse evacuations. The Hawaii National Guard activated high-water vehicle teams and nighttime rescue capability across the islands. But for the average traveler, most of these movements remained behind the scenes.
Hawaii visitors caught in a long day and an unplanned overnight.
One of the most challenging aspects was that many of the people affected were those least prepared. These were families trying to head home after their vacation, not travelers with a backup condo or a plan B.
And unlike major storms or hurricanes, the tsunami warning came with virtually no lead time. The result was confusion, panic, and missed flights that could not be easily rebooked.
What the tsunami scare exposed about Hawaii travel.
In the end, the tsunami wave arrived with thankfully far less force than initially feared. But the response revealed just how thin the margin is when it comes to Hawaii’s travel ecosystem.
With airports, highways, hotel operations, and flight schedules so tightly interlinked, a single disruption point can cause the entire system to unravel entirely in a matter of a few hours.
This was not the first tsunami warning in Hawaii, and it won’t be the last. But for those stuck in the middle of this one, it became a hard lesson in just how vulnerable the travel experience can be when nature sends even a real threat toward the islands.
Did the tsunami warning impact your travel plans?
Note: All information in this post is current as of 6 am HST on July 30. You can get more updates at tsunami.gov.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
Super after action report guys.
Kudos!
Aloha, we were evacuated from our south shore Kauai condo at 5 pm. No option to stay in our 4th floor unit and the doors were locked behind us. We went to the ball park in Koloa as instructed. Didn’t hear much on the radio about “shelters”, just places with parking and maybe a restroom outside the inundation zone. We were able to get back into our condo by 10:30. Thank you for your reports on the air travel situation. The radio stations didn’t say anything about the airport until one person called in and asked. They said LIH was above the zone and safe.
Per usual the Hawaii government got it wrong.
Maui fire they under reacted, Tsunami overreacted.
The panic they created yesterday caused a far bigger problem for people. Cars stuck in traffic for hours on the big island, a lot stopped in flood zones. People would have been trapped or forced to flee on foot if the waves had hit.
I completely get the fact that you need to let people know but to send the whole state into extreme panic is irresponsible. Again.
Your comments are grossly unfair. There is no way to predict how severe the effects of a wall of water heading our way will actually be. There are educated guesses, but would you want to be responsible for getting it wrong? Better safe than sorry. It could have been far more severe.
Getting people out of harm’s way is the government’s first responsibility. There was no panic on the part of the government. They were relaying the information they had in a timely and orderly way. Too many people hitting too few roads all at the same time is always going to result in traffic jams. If you didn’t take that into account in your own evacuation plan, that’s on you, not the government.
Right on, Drew. FWIW, our property manager tells me that the evacuation of north shore Kauai (Haena-Wainiha-Hanalei) up to Princeville-Kilauea went surprisingly smooth and was a great test of the evacuation plan for that end of the island, which is seal level flat backstopped by tall mountains that will return that wall of water back to the sea. I’m sure it sucked for people stuck in traffic, or with no place to sleep, but it would have sucked way more if an actual real deal 1947-style tsunami arrived.
I was on Moloka’i & watched on local HNL tv and on-line as soon as they began broadcasting. I have experience in emergency mgmt and on the mainland live in DC where we experience gridlock during a disaster not to mention a severe thunderstorm, normal gridlock traffic, or downtown protests. I was quite, & happily surprised at the non-stop, to the point, no mincing of words, factual coverage on this event from multiple islands, the report outs from the various mayors, governor, and their respective and management teams. I applauded the decision to let the state employees off work many hours before the expected first wave so they could take the actions they needed. This coupled with businesses closing contributed to the gridlock on the roads. At no time did I see anyone reporting on panic occurring. I also watched the police on the beaches trying to clear them of the clueless tourists. My hats off to the first responders and related personnel for their hard work yesterday.
Great job guys, best reporting on the tsunami warning I’ve seen. Excellent observation on how tenuous Hawaii’s air transportation system is. Air and shipping are Hawaii’s lifeline. AFA Honolulu ground transportation goes, if even half of everyone gets in their cars you have gridlock. It’s just a fact of life on Oahu.
Thank you for mentioning the people who had already checked out. We were those people. No room, no flight, and no idea what to do. We ended up getting a hotel for the night and hope to head to the mainland again today.
The Alaska wait time was brutal. I was on hold for nearly three hours just trying to find out if I could get my daughter on another flight. She ended up sleeping at HNL last night.
I’m glad the warning was a false alarm, but it exposed how unprepared we were as visitors. We had no idea where to go, and the hotel staff seemed just as confused as we were.
I can’t speak to hotels, but Kauai requires all licensed vacation rentals to have an evacuation plan and map posted in plain sight (i.e., refrigerator door).
We were in Waikiki yesterday when the sirens went off. Everything shut down so fast, and no one knew what to do. Thank you for covering what it actually felt like to be stuck between the hotel lobby and our canceled flight. Hoping to get home today.
Who’s in charge of Hawaii? Not Hawaiian’s, locals, the entitled, governor, or the rich. It’s mother nature baby and i’ll repeat mother nature and how these islands were originally formed.
A huge mahalo to state and county officials who, at least where I live, made sure everyone was safe and out of harm’s way. They assisted those who needed an extra hand, and did it all with aloha.
Thankfully, this time the wave impact was minor. I think Hilo Bay saw the highest water rise, and the SCP Hotel almost had water come through the lobby, but that was mostly because it also coincided with a king tide.
While tourists may have been inconvenienced, everyone was kept safe. Our emergency management officials are there to prioritize everyone’s safety, not to minimize impact on tourist schedules.
totally agree
I know about the Tsunami, but it was off the coast of Russia,to Hawaii and now threatens the West Coast of America, but Tsunami’s aren’t the biggest threat, it’s the initial Tidal Wave, Hawaii has gone through this,in the past, nothing New, except when the Tutonic Plates are hitting each other, like the San Andreas fault line in Central California, but in Hawaii, when something like this happens, Civil Defense, sounds out a very loud sounds,on the lower coast line, to move to higher ground, immediately, and I have watched the coast line, how it behaves, the sea recedes,then rushes back in, with reoccurring mini tidals, it’s a Japanese term,as there’s a lot of Japanese people who live in the island’s of Aloha Oe, but here in NYC,we don’t worry about things like that, because New York State is built on a huge hard Rock base called Granite, very close to Marble stone, very solid and sturdy, and very heavy.
“What is the difference between a tsunami and a tidal wave?”
USGS – Although both are sea waves, a tsunami and a tidal wave are two different and unrelated phenomena. A tidal wave is a shallow water wave caused by the gravitational interactions between the Sun, Moon, and Earth (“tidal wave” was used in earlier times to describe what we now call a tsunami.) A tsunami is an ocean wave triggered by large earthquakes that occur near or under the ocean, volcanic eruptions, submarine landslides, or by onshore landslides in which large volumes of debris fall into the water.
Better to be Safe than Sorry.
The dirt under our house on No Shore Kauai is 8-10 feet above sea level, depending on the tide, although the subfloor is 20-22 feet above sea level (house built on concrete columns – typical in tsunami zone past Princeville). We are of island, and don’t yet know if the ocean waves cleared the dune. It’s 3:15 am in Hawaii as I type this comment. So, for now, the truck parked under the house is Shrodinger’s truck ….
This is incorrect. Without knowing how large the waves will be when they arrive, it would be irresponsible to take half measures. Here on Maui, north of Kaanapali, there was a bit of chaos once the evacuation order was given, but there was also aloha, and it remained orderly and safe. I evacuated people out of the property where I work, and I would much rather have people think I’m an idiot for overreacting, than not take the necessary steps and have people think I’m a criminal.
Hopefully the reply intended for someone else will be caught by the moderators.
But for you, David, you can’t leave us hanging. Was the truck dead or alive when you looked under the house?
It sounds like all the emergency measures functioned as they should have. The flights should indeed have been canceled. People were warned, shelters were opened. People with nowhere to go were able to go to shelters, right? When the previous tsunami warning hit, we were on Maui and the shelter nearest us did Not open, which was shocking to me. We drove a mile uphill, had to pee in the woods and spent the night in our car near countless others. Big deal!