President Barack Obama's native state sounded tsunami sirens for the first time in 16 years from early in the morning, with authorities flying small planes to remote areas to warn coastal residents of danger to come.

Some 15 hours after the 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Chile, the first waves came ashore in Hawaii. Viewers across the United States watched live on television as it broadcast from Hawaii's sun-kissed beaches.

The highest tsunami registered half a meter (20 inches) at Kawaihae on Hawaii island, the largest in the archipelago. But the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that waves could come for hours to come.

"There is an active tsunami moving through Hawaii right now," said Nathan Becker, an oceanographer at the center. "A tsunami is a series of waves, not a single wave."

While there were no reports of injuries or damage, Becker said it was probably the largest tsunami to hit Hawaii since 1975.

Authorities ordered some 144,000 people in coastal areas, mostly on Oahu, to evacuate, saying they were prepared for a "destructive-type tsunami."

"Smaller than we thought," said Cheryl Piel of Calgary, Canada, who canceled a trip to Maui because of the tsunami. "Just glad nobody was hurt."

Jill Nakasone, who takes care of her in-laws who are in their 90s, said the warnings were rekindling memories of deadly tsunamis decades ago.

"It's hard on the old people," she said. "They're really nervous."

Ahead of the tsunami, long queues formed outside gas stations along the busy Kalanianaole Highway on Oahu. In Hilo, residents left for higher ground and packed into grocery stores where shelves of bottled water were emptied.

"Nothing fresh," said Chris Phan of Kaimuki as he stopped in to buy batteries, water and cup noodles. "Something that can hold us for a couple days."

Kealas Killion, a produce worker, said the lines started at about 2:00 am and the water shelves were cleared within four hours as employees worked frantically to restock the shelves.

"I don't even bother stacking it on the shelf," he said.

Before the evacuation, some residents walked their dogs next to Kapiolani Park by Waikiki Beach to calm them down.

Residents in Maui were urged to avoid flushing toilets and limit how much water they poured down the drain as authorities shut down the wastewater system in anticipation of the tsunami.

On Oahu, all beach parks, golf courses and the zoo were closed. Fleets of public buses provided free transport for anyone needing to leave evacuation zones.

Hawaii's Department of Transportation urged ships and shipping companies to get their vessels out of port ahead of the waves.

Kirk Caldwell, Honolulu's managing director, said the city worked with hotels to warn tourists in the renowned Waikiki Beach area to move to the third floor or higher.

At least 214 people were killed in the earthquake which struck some 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the coastal Chilean city of Concepcion.

Governments across the Pacific's "Ring of Fire" implemented emergency preparations that were beefed up after the Indian Ocean disaster of 2004, when a series of immensely destructive waves killed more than 220,000 people.

Charles McCreary, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, told Hawaii News Now that everyone should take the warnings seriously.

"Don't put yourself in harm's way. Don't go down to the beach to watch this. A tsunami is a series of waves; the hazard could go on for hours," he said.

earlier related report
Tsunami roars across Pacific after massive Chile quake
Sydney (AFP) Feb 28, 2010 - A tsunami roared across the vast Pacific Ocean after a massive killer quake in Chile on Saturday, with dozens of nations on alert for destructive waves and thousands of people fleeing their homes.

The ominous sound of evacuation sirens blared in Hawaii, French Polynesia and the South Pacific as a tsunami raced around the "Ring of Fire" after the 8.8-magnitude quake in Chile, which left at least 147 people dead.

About 50 countries and territories along an arc stretching from New Zealand to Japan were braced for powerful waves, five years after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster that killed more than 220,000 people.

Fifteen hours after the quake, tsunami waves had crashed into the Chilean coast and powered west to pound French Polynesia and the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, where officials warned bigger waves would follow.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, set up by Pacific governments after a tsunami unleashed by a 9.5-magnitude earthquake in Chile in 1960, warned of possible "widespread damage" from waves as high as three metres (10 feet).

"We could be looking at an all-day event," US National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Lau told AFP, as officials warned that the US and Canadian west coasts could also be hit.

"It will stop once it hits the land masses on the other side of the Pacific, in Asia. The wave is spread out across the entire body of water in the Pacific."

Thousands of people in the US state of Hawaii moved to higher ground, rushing to grocery stores to stock up on food and water and queuing at petrol stations, and authorities warned people not to put themselves in harm's way.

"If you live anywhere in the evacuation zone, you have to evacuate," Oahu Emergency Management Department John Cummings said as tsunami sirens wailed for the first time in 16 years.

"We're going to treat this as a destructive-type tsunami."

US President Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, warned that the US western seaboard may see dangerous waves and currents throughout the day.

"In the hours ahead, we'll continue to take every step possible to prepare our shores and protect our citizens," he said.

One tsunami measuring nearly 2.5 metres slammed into Talcahuano, one of about 11 coastal towns in Chile hit by the wave, according to the Pacific centre. There was no immediate word of casualties.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced a partial evacuation of Easter Island, but the island of about 4,000 people, known for its hundreds of monolithic stone statues, received a relatively small onrush of water.

The pan-Pacific tsunami warning applied also to Central America, and authorities as far afield as Russia's Sakhalin island were monitoring the potential for tidal trouble.

One expert said the mass of water would be hurtling towards Hawaii at 200 metres a second or 720 kilometres an hour.

"Mid-ocean, the wave is travelling at around the speed of a jet plane," Roger Bilham, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, told AFP.

"The amplitude of the wave is small when it's mid-ocean, but it may rise to five to 10 metres when it reaches Japan or the Philippines."

Tsunamis generally come in waves and the first may not be the largest.

But the Pacific Warning Center, which manages a network of early-warning electronic buoys strung across the Pacific Ocean, said local authorities can assume the threat has passed when no major waves have been seen for two hours.

In the island paradise of French Polynesia, waves hit the Marquesas Islands and the Gambier archipelago, but there were no casualties or major damage reported.

Schools across the region were closed, the port in Papeete was evacuated and thousands in Tahiti's hillside areas were taken to safer areas. However many residents along the coast refused to leave for fear of looting.

A half-metre tsunami struck New Zealand's eastern Chatham Islands, with officials warning that the country's entire east coast was at risk from impending waves of up to three metres.

"It is expected that the greatest wave heights will occur between six and 12 hours after the initial arrivals," the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management said.

However, fisherman were still heading out to sea and in Napier on the east coast of the North Island, unperturbed stallholders were setting up their Sunday market.

In the South Pacific island nations of Tonga and the Cook Islands, residents were making their way to higher points inland.

Many islanders are still living in makeshift shelters following a terrifying tsunami in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga that trashed entire villages in September, leaving more than 180 people dead.

Despite the early warning system, the September waves came so suddenly that there was little time to flee to higher ground.

The region is in the middle of the "Ring of Fire", a belt of seismic fury responsible for most of the world's tremors and volcanoes.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre warned of the "possibility of dangerous waves, strong ocean currents and foreshore flooding" along the coast between Sydney and Brisbane.

Authorities in Indonesia and Taiwan said they were monitoring, while Philippine officials started planning for possible evacuations.

Seismic waves could reach the east coast of Japan around noon (0300 GMT), the country's meteorological agency said.

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