Hawaii downgrades tsunami warning, lifts evacuation order

Hawaii on Wednesday downgraded a tsunami warning to an advisory and lifted an evacuation order after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia.  

The earthquake Tuesday sent shockwaves through Japan, Hawaii, and the U.S. West Coast.

 With the advisory, Hawaii is warning local residents to be aware of harsher winds and rip currents in the ocean.

The Department of Transportation on Tuesday canceled all flights to and from Maui as Hilo International Airport on the Big Island was closed, and baggage operations at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu were temporarily suspended.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) activated Black Hawk helicopter crews to ensure vehicles were prepared to rescue any individuals caught in the water.

The earthquake also impacted Northern California, which reported waves nearly 6-foot-high waves, and Alaska, where water rose a foot above tide level.

There were also rougher currents waters off Seattle due to the aftershock of the earthquake.

The earthquake was among the four strongest earthquakes this century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, The Associated Press reported.

Simon Boxall, a principal teaching fellow at the University of Southampton's Physical Oceanography Research Center, said that the earthquake was the sixth-biggest ever recorded.

“It’s a bit like throwing a very, very large rock into the sea and then watching the waves propagate away from that rock, that splash,’’ Boxall said.

A tsunami height of 10 to 13 feet was recorded in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, while tsunami waves about 2 to 5 feet high reached San Francisco early Wednesday, according to officials. Other areas saw smaller waves.