As threat assessments touched off warning sirens across Waikiki, hotels began moving guests mostly to higher floors — a standard protocol known as vertical evacuation.

Fears of a devastating tsunami faded Wednesday for the U.S. and Japan after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off a sparsely populated Russian peninsula, but new alerts along South America's Pacific coast forced evacuations and closed beaches.

FlTsunami warnings are still in place a day after a huge earthquake rocked the Pacific. The 8.8 magnitude quake, one of the strongest ever recorded, struck off the coast of Russia’s far east in the early hours of Wednesday morning.