This is the moment terrified British tourists in Hawaii were left stranded as cruise ships abandoned ports amid tsunami warnings after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia this morning.
Evacuations were ordered in Hawaii, Japan, Russia, Colombia and part of the U.S. West coast after the quake hit near Russia’s eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, casting out 15ft waves across the Pacific.
Panicked tourists took to social media to share their desperation as cruise ships appeared to hastily depart from Hawaii without passengers.
One TikTok user, @demifreeman, posted a video of people frantically running down a port towards their ship on the social media site. The clip said: ‘POV: tsunami in Hawaii and your cruise is leaving without people.’
‘Actually insane,’ the passenger said in the caption, adding: ‘We are going to be in the middle of the tsunami in the ocean.’
The US Tsunami Warning Centers said waves exceeding three metres above the tide level were possible along some coasts of northwestern Hawaiian islands.
Waves of around 1.7m (5.5ft) reached as far as Hawaii, less high than originally expected, but scientists warned that such waves do not have to be especially big to do damage to the relatively low-lying coastlines of Pacific island nations.
Authorities are still bracing for tsunami waves to reach the U.S. mainland, with 3.6ft waves observed in California. Near the epicentre in Russia, waves reached highs of up to six metres (nearly 20ft), local experts said.
Almost two million people in Japan were told to head to higher ground and tsunami warnings were issued across the region, before being rescinded or downgraded – though scientists warned of the danger of powerful aftershocks.
Wednesday’s quake has already triggered at least 10 aftershocks above magnitude 5, and they could continue for months, said Caroline Orchiston, director of the Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago in New Zealand.
As people brace themselves for possible disaster, some holidaymakers have reported cruise ships are leaving without passengers
While in another video, posted by @mandythecruiseplanner , appeared to show a bus load of people who had missed a cruise in Hawaii
In Hawaii, video shared by @mandythecruiseplanner appeared to show a bus load of people who had missed a cruise in Hawaii as holidaymakers desperately scrambled to avoid to fallout.
‘So we made it to the port, but the ship is leaving,’ Mandy explained.
She added: ‘The ship is leaving and now we’re going to higher ground and people are upset, and this is not me making light of the situation, this is me just saying it’s crazy, it’s chaos, nobody knows what’s going on, our bus driver had no idea what’s happening.
‘People on the ship, we have family on the ship, they’re terrified for us. We’re terrified for us.’
The holidaymaker shared how other passengers were coping, describing how some were even ‘crying’.
She said: ‘We’re going to be going to higher ground now, I’ll keep you posted about what’s happening, I did not expect this.
‘People are crying, we’re going to higher ground, an employer is yelling at people, people are yelling at the employee, this is crazy.’
She finished with: ‘I love you guys, I’ll keep you posted, keep the faith.
‘This is the first time I’ve ever not made it to the ship and I’m worried for all the kids, the kids are just terrified on the ship and communication is not great.’
Officials from countries with a Pacific coastline in North and South America – including the United States, Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia – issued warnings to avoid threatened beaches and low-lying areas.
Tsunami sirens blared near Hawaii’s popular Waikiki surf beach where traffic was gridlocked as Hawaiians escaped to higher ground.
Governor Josh Green said flights in and out of the island of Maui had been cancelled as a precaution, before authorities cancelled a coastal evacuation order.
Officials in Hawaii later said residents who had evacuated could return to their homes.
Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan, the Adjutant General of the State of Hawaii Department of Defense, said an advisory means there is the potential for strong currents and dangerous waves, as well as flooding on beaches or in harbors.
Falling debris in Kamchatka, Russia as the earthquake struck on Wednesday
The quake hit near Russia’s eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, casting out 15ft waves across the Pacific and causing rock fall into the ocean
Rescuers inspecting a damaged kindergarten building in Russia’s Kamchatka region after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s far east coast
A flooded area in Severo-Kurilsk, Sakhalin Region, Russia, 30 July 2025
People who evacuated to the rooftop of a building in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on July 30, 2025
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning for the country’s Pacific coast following the quake off Russia’s coast
British tourist Rachael Burrows, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, was also forced to rush back to a cruise ship on Hawaii before it left for safer waters this morning.
She told BBC Breakfast: ‘We were on a tour around the volcanic area of the Big Island.
‘Towards the end of the tour, as we were luckily heading towards the cruise ship, we started getting emergency warnings sign on our phones.
‘The first one was tsunami you are in immediate danger, you need to move away from the coast to higher ground.’
The tour guide was at first dismissive of the warning, saying they happened all the time and it ‘won’t be anything’.
Ms Burrows added: ‘We started getting more through saying times when the tsunami would hit.’
Suddenly, she said, they were told it was time to go. Their outing on the island was cut short and passengers hurried back to the ship.
‘It was quite scary because all the sirens started going off in the area,’ Ms Burrows said.
‘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.
‘They were then told to get to higher ground on shore.’
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Burrows said that 600 passengers were left stranded on Big Island in Hawaii.
‘The tour operator just messaged to say 600 people didn’t get onto our ship. They were then told to find refuge at higher ground. So it was quite scary.
Vacationers stand on balconies at the ‘Alohilani Resort’ looking towards Waikiki Beach after authorities warned of the possibility of tsunami waves, following an earthquake which earlier struck off Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. July 29, 2025
Visitors look on from their Waikiki hotel balcony waiting for the arrival of a tsunami at the Ala Wai Harbor, Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii on July 29, 2025
Residents and visitors found themselves backed up in traffic as they try to leave the the Ala Way Harbor, Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii on July 29
Honolulu resident Adam Jung loads water and other supplies into his vehicle after authorities warned residents of the possibility of destructive tsunami waves, July 29, 2025
Hawaii locals desperately evacuated to higher ground on Wednesday after the quake struck off Russia, pushing 15ft waves out across the Pacific.
The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency advised residents to remain at least 100 feet away from inland waterways or marinas connected to the ocean due to wave surges and possible flooding.
‘If possible, remove or deploy vessels to deep water,’ the agency said.
The Pacific warning centre has since downgraded the Hawaii tsunami alert to ‘advisory’ and said it was safe for residents to return to evacuated areas.
Officials also warned people to stay away from beaches and waterways in Crescent City, California, which has observed dozens of tsunamis since the 1930s, including one that killed 11 people and destroyed hundreds of buildings in the city in 1964.
A major tsunami is not expected to strike the U.S. state of Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) said in an update, and there were no reports of major damage.
But authorities have started observing abnormally large waves off the coast of U.S. states.
Oregon has seen a maximum observed wave height of 1.4ft, at Port Orford, while Washington state has seen tsunamis of up to 0.7ft, at Charleston.
Crescent City, in California, has seen waves measuring up to 3.6ft so far. Adak, in Alaska, saw 2.7ft waves.
One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s sparsely populated Far East early on July 30, causing tsunamis of up to four metres (12 feet) across the Pacific and sparking evacuations from Hawaii to Japan
Oahu residents seek refuge from the threat of tsunami in a Walmart parking lot in Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii, Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Traffic builds on S Beretania Street near downtown Honolulu after authorities warned residents of the possibility of destructive tsunami waves, July 29, 2025
Waves of up to four metres were expected to hit the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia in the early hours of Wednesday, local authorities said.
It added that the islands of Ua Huka and Hiva Oa are also expected to be affected.
The Russian authorities declared a state of emergency on the Kuril Islands and in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the main city on the Kamchatka peninsula.
They earlier reported that several tsunami waves flooded the fishing port of Severo-Kurilsk, the main city on the islands, and cut power supplies to the area.
Russia’s Oceanography Institute said tsunami waves that hit the city topped 6 meters (19 feet).
Authorities said the population of around 2,000 people had been evacuated.
The waves reached as far as the town’s World War II monument about 400 metres from the shoreline, said Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov.
Several people were injured in Russia by the quake, state media reported, but none seriously.
‘The walls were shaking,’ a Kamchatka resident told state media Zvezda.
‘It’s good that we packed a suitcase, there was one with water and clothes near the door. We quickly grabbed it and ran out… It was very scary,’ she said.
Later Wednesday, the authorities in the Kamchatka peninsula announced the tsunami warning had been lifted.
Tsunami alerts were in place on the West coast of the U.S. after an earthquake off Russia
A LA County Lifeguard truck patrols Venice beach pier amid a tsunami warning in Los Angeles, California on July 30
Tsunamis hit parts of Russia’s Far East and Japan on July 30 after a huge magnitude 8.8 earthquake, with warnings in place around the Pacific of waves of over three metres (10 feet) in places
In Japan, nearly two million people were advised to evacuate, and many left by car or on foot to higher ground.
One woman was killed as she drove her car off a cliff as she tried to escape, local media reported.
A 1.3-metre high tsunami reached a port in the northern prefecture of Iwate, Japan’s weather agency said.
By Wednesday evening, the agency had downgraded its tsunami alerts – issued for much of the archipelago – to advisories.
