BRIT tourists were forced to rush back to a Hawaii cruise ship after warning sirens blared around the island amid possibility of waves as high as 10ft.
Many passengers are now stranded on the island after the ship made a frantic escape following a tsunami panic.
Residents and visitors found themselves backed up in traffic as they tried to leave the Ala Way Harbor, Waikiki, Oahu[/caption]
British tourist Rachael Burrows on a cruise ship off the coast of Hawaii spoke to The BBC[/caption]
Rachael Burrows, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, is currently on a cruise off the coast of Hawaii.
She got off the cessel to tour the island when the tsunami warnings began to blare.
She, along with other passengers, was then forced to make a dash and get back on board – sparking a widespread panic.
The Brit 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 said, ‘You are in immediate danger, you need to move away from the coast to higher ground.’”
Ms Burrows said that the organisers stopped the tour as more people began rushing back to the ship.
But some people were unable to reach the cruise – and were left stranded, the Brit added.
She said: “It was quite scary because all the sirens started going off in the area.
“We got off the tour bus and everyone was running trying to get on the cruise ship, because we needed to get out to sea.
“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.”
Hawaii is now bracing for the possibility of 3m (10ft) surges that could strike across the northern islands in the chain.
Waves 1.2m (4ft) have already hit Hawaii, with video caught by locals showing the water receding moments before.
Locals in low-lying and coastal areas are now heading for the hills with warning sirens blasting out across Honolulu.
Drivers were seen waiting in huge queues of traffic as they try to flee Waikiki, Oahu.
Hawaii’s governor Josh Green said they have so far “not seen a wave of consequence.”
He said: “We still have not seen any wave activity come past the Big Island. That’s important.
“Until we see what happens on the Big Island, we won’t feel we’re in a position to start saying that we’re in the clear.”
This could take up to three hours, he said.
Gov Green added: “Just lay low tonight and watch TV, please.”
It comes after a Brit family holidaying in Hawaii told The Sun how they are stranded on the 16th floor of their hotel as the first tsunami waves hit the island.
Emma Bardwell told The Sun how panic unfolded when warning sirens blared around the island amid possibility of waves as high as 10ft.
Emma began a road trip from California with her husband and two daughters – with Hawaii being their last stop.
The Brit family of four from Benfleet, Essex, booked rooms in the posh Beach Villas at Ko Olina in Oahu to spend some quality time together.
But as they sat down by the pool, gazing at the beautiful sea horizon, emergency warnings about a potential tsunami began flashing on their phones.
Emma said: “We’re just having a normal day. And then we just got alerts on our phones saying a tsunami warning, and we need to evacuate.
“My eldest daughter started panicking when she turned on the news and saw everything. We got really worried.
“I was trying to stay calm because here with our two girls, so we didn’t want to sort of show any panic.
“But you can’t help those images out of your head of what we saw during the Boxing Day Tsunami all those years ago.”
The Boxing Day Tsunami, also known as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history – killing more than 227,000 people.
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