‘We didn’t know how big this was’: WA woman describes panic as tsunami threat hits Hawaii

A Washington woman arrived on the Hawaiian island of Kauai on Tuesday — just in time to retreat to higher ground as a tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Russia, bore down on the islands.

“The sirens were going off every hour with the warning of three hours to the first wave, two hours to the first wave, and it got down to like 15 minutes to the first wave,” Edmonds resident Liz Milici told KIRO Newsradio. “We didn’t know how big this was going to be, if anything at all. We just didn’t know.”

There was fear and anxiety, like ‘What if this happens?’ Because your mind does flash back to Indonesia. We’ve seen the images. We’ve heard the horrific stories and tragedies that have happened in the past, and so your mind does go there,” she continued.

Milici travels to Hawaii at least once a year. She’s very familiar with the islands and had accommodations on the beach.

“I went down to the local mart and got some food and water, and I thought, ‘OK, I don’t know where I’m going, but I can’t be where I’m going to be if the tsunami is coming because I’m staying right on the waterfront,'” she shared.

Traffic jammed as Hawaii residents tried to evade tsunami

Milici headed for higher ground — a trip she said should have taken 20 minutes, but took two hours, as roads were packed with cars trying to get away from the coast.

“As I was driving to my friend’s house, the local parks that were on higher ground, they were just jam-packed with people,” she said. “That’s where everyone went. People were just hanging out at parks.”

The impact of the tsunami was minimal, and by 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the all-clear was given, and vacations on the island resumed. Milici praised local authorities for their handling of the situation and the warnings and information they provided.

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