On Tuesday, 29 July 2025, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded hit just off Russia’s remote eastern coast in the Kamchatka Peninsula, with a magnitude of 8.8, sending 15-foot waves across the Pacific and prompting tsunami warnings, including parts of the United States‘ West Coast in California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, and in the Hawaiian Islands, where evacuations have already taken place. British Columbia in Canada also issued a tsunami alert, and evacuation orders were sent out in multiple other places outside the U.S. in parts of Colombia, Japan, the Philippines, and Russia. Waves have since begun hitting California and Hawaii, as well as parts of Japan and Russia’s Kuril Islands.

While people on land in the areas under tsunami advisories are undertaking evacuations and bracing for impact, cruise ships are also caught in the midst; reports and videos on social media in affected areas, like Hawaii, are reporting cruise ships leaving without passengers, sparking panicked and anxious reactions from stranded guests who seemingly have no idea what’s going on.

Panicked Cruise Ship Passengers Were Abandoned In Hawaii Following Tsunami Warnings

Terrified cruise ship passengers have allegedly been abandoned in Hawaii by their cruise lines after a major tsunami alert in the morning. Footage shared on social media shows passengers frantically sprinting to catch their cruise ship, while others reported they had been left behind. One TikTok user, @demifreeman, posted a video (seen above) featuring people running down a port towards their ship. The passenger’s video caption said the situation is “Actually insane,” adding “We are going to be in the middle of the tsunami in the ocean.”

Additionally, TikTok user @mandythecruiseplanner explained in a video (seen below) that a busload of cruisers was abandoned in Hawaii after their ship departed; she stated that the passengers were taken to higher ground thereafter. According to the video, the stranded guests were “upset” and “crying.” She said, “So we made it to the port, but the ship is leaving.”

“The ship is leaving and now we’re going to higher ground and people are upset,” the Tiktok user said. She continued, saying “Nobody knows what’s going on, our bus driver had no idea what’s happening. People on the ship, we have family on the ship, they’re terrified for us. We’re terrified for us.” She further added, “We’re going to be going to higher ground now, I’ll keep you posted about what’s happening, I did not expect this. People are crying, we’re going to higher ground, an employer is yelling at people, people are yelling at the employee, this is crazy.”

She continued further for viewers, saying, “This is not me making light of the situation, this is me just saying it’s crazy, it’s chaos.”

Mandy finished the video saying, “I love you guys, I’ll keep you posted, keep the faith,” and said, “This is the first time I’ve ever not made it to the ship and I’m worried for all the kids, the kids are just terrified on the ship and communication is not great.”

Meanwhile, a British tourist in Hawaii, Rachael Burrows, was also forced to hurry back to her cruise ship this morning before it departed for safer waters. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she said: ‘We were on a tour around the volcanic area of the Big Island. She continued by explaining that she received emergency warnings via phone.

“Towards the end of the tour, as we were luckily heading towards the cruise ship, we started getting emergency warnings signs on our phones.” she said. “The first one was tsunami you are in immediate danger, you need to move away from the coast to higher ground,” she added. Burrs contined, saying “The tour guide was at first dismissive of the warning, saying they happened all the time and it ‘won’t be anything.'”

Burrows also said travelers began receiving more alerts about the expected tsunamis, adding ‘We started getting more through, saying times when the tsunami would hit.” She also added that they were suddenly told it was “time to go”, at which point their excursion on the island was cut short and passengers rushed back to the ship. “It was quite scary because all the sirens started going off in the area,’ Ms Burrows added.

“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,” she continued. ‘They were then told to get to higher ground on shore,” she added.

However, according to Ms Burrows, not everyone made it back to the cruise ship; speaking to Sky News, she said 600 passengers didn’t make it and were left stranded on Hawaii’s Big Island.

‘The tour operator just messaged to say 600 people didn’t get onto our ship. They were then told to find refuge at higher ground. So it was quite scary,” Ms Burrows explained.

The accounts of cruise passengers racing to get back to their ships and being abandoned at ports come as new updates from Hawaii officials are being announced.

Evacuation Orders And Tsunami Advisories Have Recently Been Updated For Hawaii

Hawaii is in direct line from the epicenter of the earthquake in the east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia. Hawaiian residents had already been evacuating after being urged to move to higher ground and away from coastal areas. This morning, a 4.9-foot wave (1.5 meters) was recorded in Hilo, Hawaii, per the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center; meanwhile, a wave of 5.7 feet in height (1.74 meters) was recorded in Kahului, Maui.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency advised all residents to stay at least 100 feet away from marinas and inland waterways connected to the ocean as a result of potential flooding and wave surges.

“If possible, remove or deploy vessels to deep water,” the agency advised.

However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) has recently downgraded Hawaii’s tsunami alert to “advisory,” and declared it was safe for residents to return to formerly evacuated areas. A major tsunami is not expected to hit Hawaii, the PTWC stated in an update, although residents and officials remain on alert.

Russia Earthquake Details From The NOAA

In addition to Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, the U.S. territories of Guam and American Samoa were issued tsunami warnings, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The earthquake and tsunami news also led President Donald Trump to urge Americans to “STAY STRONG AND STAY SAFE” in a post on X. Local officials in Chile and Ecuador also confirmed they were under tsunami warnings, and several provinces in the Philippines have also issued tsunami alerts.

Furthermore, an advisory was issued for the Pacific Coast regions of Japan, from Hokkaido to Kyushu. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has also been evacuated, which was destroyed by a tsunami in 2011 following the Tohoku earthquake. The earthquake and tsunami killed more than 18,000 people in Japan, and the Fukushima exclusion zone has served as a dark tourism destination for more than a decade since.

Currently, the public can keep up to date on the Russia earthquake and all tsunami alerts via the live map provided by the NOAA / National Weather Service Tsunami Warning page for the incident, as well as the overall tsunami.gov website.