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.

A tsunami warning issued for Hawaii after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, an 8.8 magnitude in Russia's Far East, was canceled after small waves peaked.

A small California coastal city near the border with Oregon that has recorded dozens of tsunamis, including one that killed 11 people more than 60 years ago, saw little damage Wednesday as locals returned to their routines amid sunny skies in the town known as a tsunami magnet.

As the tsunami threat subsides across the Pacific, this is where warnings and evacuation orders have been officially lifted.