Dave Snider, Warning Coordinator with the Tsunami Warning Center, says Alaska got lucky after the magnitude 8.8 earthquake Tuesday in Russia's Kamchatka region.

The entire U.S. West Coast was facing a tsunami threat after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake erupted off Russia's eastern coast on Tuesday. A tsunami warning was issued in Hawaii, Northern California and in Alaska,

A tsunami watch has been issued for much of British Columbia's coast after a massive earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.7 -- potentially one of the most powerful ever recorded -- struck in the Pacific Ocean off southeastern Russia.