Tsunami Hits Hawaii, Headed to West Coast

The devastating 8.9 quake that hit Japan resulted in a tsunami that is reverberating across the Pacific Ocean. The tsunami landed on the Hawaiian island of Kauai early Friday morning, and began working its way through the rest of the Pacific island chain. Residents in coastal areas of Hawaii were given several hours to prepare, and evacuated to refuge to avoid waves that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said could reach six feet high. Wave surges were spotted at Waikiki beach around 8:20 a.m. ET, with local TV station KHON2 posting video of the wave on its website. A 4.6-magnitude earthquake later hit Hawaii around 4 a.m. ET Friday. Waves are expected to hit the west coast of the U.S. between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. ET Friday, and people in the coastal area of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, California, were warned to move to higher ground. “It is very possible there may be some evacuations here," California Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jordan Scott said. He added that the northern California area near the Oregon border was most likely to see big waves.