---
title: "Tsunami Warnings Article"
url: "https://volunteermagazine.cap.gov/2/winter-2025/47/tsunami-warnings-article"
---

# Hawaii Wing Responds Quickly to Tsunami Threat Following Massive Russian Quake

By Paul South

 ![2025-HIE-Day6-0105-LtTeal.jpg](https://volunteermagazine.cap.gov/u/2025-hie-day6-0105-ltteal-kIrjfQ.jpg) 

_CAP aircraft based in Hawaii are always ready for flight, as was the case this summer when a Russian earthquake prompted the need for tsunami warnings over the islands’ coastal areas._

In late July, when a powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake rocked and rolled the Kamchatka peninsula, a remote Russian region in the northern Pacific Ocean, Civil Air Patrol’s Hawaii Wing and the Pacific Tsunami Warning System scrambled to work.

The Hawaii Wing was “wheels-up” within 90 minutes after the first tsunami warning notification.

While tsunami waves more than 4 feet high and 11 feet deep damaged some boats and harbor infrastructure and triggered mild flooding, no one on the island chain was injured or killed by the swells, Col. Dana McLaughlin, then the wing’s director of emergency services, said.

While one of the most powerful quakes ever recorded didn’t trigger the massive tidal waves that create a tsunami, it easily could have. The Hawaii Wing’s warning system, long the wing’s bread and butter when it comes to emergency response, again proved its mettle, even bringing a new baby into the world. 

“When the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center elevates a threat to Tsunami Warning status [red level], our aircrews are among the very first to mobilize,” said McLaughlin, now the wing's commander. “The mission is unique: while much of CAP’s work involves search and rescue, disaster assessment, and transport, in a tsunami response the priority is rapid coastal alerting.”

McLaughlin provided a glimpse of the mission from an incident commander’s perspective.

“As soon as we receive the first notice of a potential tsunami threat, we begin preparations. Pilots head immediately to the airport to begin preflighting aircraft — even while mission paperwork is still catching up. In these situations, every minute counts,” she said.

![20240718_102025.jpg](https://volunteermagazine.cap.gov/u/20240718_102025-RX5X74.jpg) 

_A Hawaii Wing aircraft with a loudspeaker attached to one of its wing struts flies over a rural housing development during tsunami warning training this summer. Photo by 2nd Lt. Brian Teal, Hawaii Wing_

_“Once the official red alert Tsunami Warning is issued, CAP aircraft launch under a standing agreement with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. From that moment, the task is urgent and clear: Fly the coastline, sound the sirens, and broadcast the evacuation message: ‘Tsunami warning! Evacuate all low-lying areas until all-clear is given.’”

Time was tight for the Hawaii Wing and other emergency responders in the wake of the warning, McLaughlin said, and personnel moved quickly after official warnings were issued.

Even the state emergency management agency “moves into immediate action and finalizes paperwork afterward, that’s the nature of a tsunami threat — you might have very little time to respond,” she said. “In a tsunami response, our job is not theoretical. It’s about saving lives in real time, that’s why we train, and that’s why we answer the call without hesitation.”

The wing conducted four warning flights and relocated eight of its 11 aircraft to higher ground. Members across the state responding to the alarms navigated heavy vehicle traffic, and while at local airports, crews gained valuable learning experience regarding the facilities’ standard operating procedures, which will help the wing going forward, McLaughlin wrote in her after-action report to members.


![PullQuoteTsunami.jpg](https://volunteermagazine.cap.gov/u/pullquotetsunami-Y3QMDA.jpg)


There are 326 warning sirens across the island chain, used in the event of not only tsunamis but also fire, flash floods, and other disasters. The system is tested at noon on the first day of each month, McLaughlin said. 

During the recent Kamchatka quake, the system activated several times during the day.

“It always startles the tourists,” she said.

There’s also a network of buoys that tracks tsunami progress and threat level across the Pacific.

#### Cadet Heroism

The system, which predates Hawaii’s statehood, has a long history of effectiveness. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was created after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck the Aleutian Islands and triggered a wave 50 feet tall, destroying a newspaper and a sugar mill on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The wave killed 96 people in a Japanese fishing village in Hilo on the big island.

Across Hawaii, the April 1, 1946, quake killed 170 people and led to the creation of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System still in place.

The system’s history is the stuff of legend. Col. Roger Caires, former Hawaii Wing commander, recounted the heroic story the Hanalei cadet squadron in an earlier story in Civil Air Patrol's _VOLUNTEER_ magazine.

_"Even before the tsunami warning mission was formally put in place — and before Hawaii became America’s 50th state — CAP provided warnings of tidal and coastal problems. When a tidal wave bore down on the north coasts of Kauai and Oahu in 1957, the town of Hanalei on the north shore of Kauai was spared any deaths or injuries, thanks to warnings from the Hanalei CAP squadron. A Hanalei Civil Air Patrol cadet squadron was about to hold its weekly meeting on Kauai on March 11, 1957, when it received a radio message from its headquarters in Honolulu that a massive earthquake off Alaska had triggered a tsunami that was expected to hit Hawaii within an hour. The cadets, under the leadership of a lieutenant, Kai Davis, jumped into their jeeps, which were equipped with sirens, and drove through Hanalei Valley and Haena sounding the alarm. Going door to door, the CAP cadets are credited with alerting 300 to 400 Kauai residents, who took refuge at the Hanalei lookout.”_

#### The Historical Record

One of the earliest recorded tsunamis in Hawaii’s history hit in 1868 when an earthquake at Mauna Loa on the Big Island destroyed six villages and killed nearly 100. Witnesses said the waves were more than 60 feet high, taller than the coconut trees.

Here are some other examples from Hawaii’s history:

In 1923 an 8.4=magnitude earthquake — also on Kamchatka Peninsula — generated a tsunami wave that reached a height of 26 feet. The wave caused property damage across Hawaii.

- On May 22, 1960, a 9.6-magnitude earthquake, perhaps the strongest ever recorded, on the southern coast of Chile generated a wave over 35 feet high that again devastated the village of Shinmachi in Hilo, destroying a school and killing 61. “Shortly after this disaster, the state of Hawaii recognized CAP as playing an integral role in disaster response,” McLaughlin said. “We worked with the politicians to develop routes in order to get the message out to all coastlines.” 

- On March 27, 1964, the 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake that hit Anchorage created a tsunami wave that struck Hawaii again, causing property damage across the state. 

- On Nov. 29, 1975, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake at the Hilina Slump, the same place as the 1868 one, triggered a 47-foot tsunami and a small brief eruption of the Kilauea volcano. 

- In 2005, a small tsunami flooded the Marriott Courtyard in Kailua-Kona, causing a voyaging canoe mounted in the lobby to float.

 ![2025-HIE-Day6-0012-CTeal.jpg](https://volunteermagazine.cap.gov/u/2025-hie-day6-0012-cteal-zasas0.jpg) 

_This CAP aircraft — one of the eight used as part of the Hawaii Wing’s tsunami warning mission in late July — heads toward the runway for takeoff._

#### Geographical Challenges

Unlike CAP wings in the lower 48 states, Hawaii and Alaska face unique geographic challenges. Moving personnel between islands in Hawaii can be a tricky proposition.

“There are no bridges or ferries connecting the islands, which makes coordination, training, and logistics far more complex,” McLaughlin said. “On the mainland, you can move people and equipment across state lines by road. Here, we don’t have that option. We can’t just load up a van and drive to a training site.”

But she sees the broad expanse of the Pacific in a positive light.

McLaughlin began her CAP career in March 1989 as a cadet in California. She became Hawaii Wing commander in October. She has a bold vision for the wing, driven not only by adaptability but also guided by three Hawaiian words that have always defined its spirit — the values of hoʻomau [perseverance], kuleana [responsibility], and laulima [cooperation].

And for CAP members in the Lower 48 who may have only seen the Aloha State in vacation dreams or an Elvis movie, McLaughlin has a message about the state she calls home — and the wing she proudly serves.

“Hawaii is a special place. When disaster strikes, we respond with the same commitment to our neighbors that you do. Here in the islands, we take care of our home, we mālama i ka ‘āina [care for the land], and we protect our family, our ‘ohana. 

“It is that spirit of unity, resilience, and aloha that guides every mission we fly.”

And as for the new life CAP personnel brought into the world for a passerby, McLaughlin had a question: “Can they at least get a lifesaving [medal] for that, or at least a life-giving Commander’s Commendation Award?”