Hawaii Hotels Evacuate for Tsunami But All Seems Ok So Far

March 11, 2011 at 10:16 AM | by juliana | Comments (0)

UPDATE: Scroll down for more updates from Hawaii hotels

After last night's devastating earthquake in Japan was followed by a terrifying tsunami, hotels in Hawaii were on full alert as the tsunami continued its path across the Pacific Ocean. Several hotels began implementing "vertical evacuation", urging guests to move to higher floors.

HotelChatter's own contributor Chanize is currently at the Grand Wailea Maui where she twittered that the hotel had evacuated guests from their rooms, no doubt giving sleeping vacationers a terrifying jolt during a supposedly chill island stay.

Fairmont Hotels also Facebooked that their guests were "safely evacuated" starting at midnight.

Fortunately when the tsunami did hit Hawaii about an hour ago, early reports said there has been no damage and only a slight rise in water levels. Still, hotel guests will have to stay up a little longer.

As of 3:45am Hawaii time, guests were still not allowed back into their rooms with Chanize telling us that by 6am they will get the all clear. Another travel journalist, Chris Elliott is also at the Grand Wailea and just a few minutes ago, he tweeted that despite the activity, things are probably going to be alright:

Mood in lobby of @Grandwailea is festive. "Very little" wave action now reported near Maui. Looks like we survived

A tsunami alert has also been issued for the entire West Coast of the U.S. but while Southern California is expecting some serious waves, there haven't been any calls for hotel evacuations yet. In Japan, things are much more serious. All tall buildings in Tokyo have been evacuated and elevators are off-limits. Considering how many hotels are within tall buildings, that's a lot of hotel that are operating in emergency mode right now.

We'll keep you posted on any other tsunami hotel news but if you're in a hotel in Hawaii or Japan, let us know how you're doing! You can holler at us on Twitter too at @HotelChatter.

UPDATES

· The Ko'a Kea Hotel on Kauai tells us via Twitter:

Aloha from Ko'a Kea Hotel on Kauai. Evacuated the hotel early. Unusual wave activity, no damage. Waiting to return.....

· Bill Rees, general manager for the Outrigger Maui El Dorado Condominium Resort also tweeted at us:

Plenty of tired guests who insisted on returning to their rooms when big waves didn't materialize. More wave action now, tho.

· HotelChatter Twitter follower Michelle Conrad also says that some hotel guests in Kauai were evacuated to school gyms.

· Chris Elliott reports that the Grand Wailea has gotten the "all clear" at 6:30am Hawaii time. He also managed to file a "How to Survive a Tsunami in Your Hotel" story not even an hour later.

[Photo: Daily Mail]

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