The U.S. state of Hawaii on Saturday avoided serious damage when a tsunami caused by a powerful earthquake in Chile barely touched its coasts, though officials warned residents to stay away from shorelines because the ocean could still unstable for several hours. The Warning Center Pacific Tsunami warning lifted her to the state, but added that coastal areas could still undergo changes in sea levels and strong currents for several hours.

While the tsunami was headed for the coast of Hawaii early in the day, the sirens began to sound state to begin the evacuation of residents near the coast. The Warning Center had said earlier that the tsunami could bring waves up to 2.4 meters.

Civil defense fire teams

Gas stations in Honolulu were crowded in places with rows of vehicles up to 400 meters, while residents waited to fill their tanks before evacuating.

When the tsunami hit Hawaii, sea water is discolored and retired in Hilo and Honolulu. However, the initial wave of almost one meter high were not a threat. In the archipelago, usually surfers ride waves up to 6.5 meters tall.

Before the warning was lifted, the Civil Defense administrator Quince Mentor said there was much activity in the ocean, but that there had been no significant destruction. The school had issued a tsunami warning which included Hawaii and spread over the ocean from South America to the Pacific coast.

The warning came after a strong earthquake in Chile that a magnitude 8.8 killed at least 300 people and generated huge waves on the coast of the country prone to earthquakes.

The last time a destructive tsunami hit Hawaii was in 1960 when much of the city of Hilo was destroyed when an earthquake of magnitude 9.5 in Chile.

Since then, tsunamis have not been very frequent in the island. The last time the Civil Defense officials ordered evacuations was in 1994.

The Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska and the U.S. West Coast said there was a tsunami warning for coastal areas of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska, from the border of Mexico and California to Attu, Alaska .