sure you've covered tsunami warnings and advisories in the past. what have you seen being there on the island of hawaii? >> well, the last time we had a big scare was 2011, the famous tsunami that we all watched before as it hit japan. that happened in march. 2011. we were on alert here all night long. we've gone through this many, many times. as i said, there was loss of life in hawaii in 1946 after a tsunami. there was also one in 1960 and one in 1975 where people have died. so people, you know, the thing about tsunamis in hawaii is we're all concerned but there hasn't been a really serious tsunami that's killed people in our state for, frankly, we're talking about more than 30 years since 1975. so an entire generation has grown up without seeing that sort of destruction here.

so it's always been a challenge for officials to get folks to take these warnings seriously and they do the best they can to get word out with pleading and texting and everything else these days. of course you still have some folks who don't heed the warnings and others who are unable to get out. the ambulance told me they have 20 bed bound people who were on oxygen and with respirators and had no help and needed to be transferred via ambulance to an emergency room at a hospital just so they were safe and they needed extra help. those are the kinds of things they're dealing with, you know, special cases that need extra help. >> and this is taking place on the island of maui right now? >> this is on oahu where i am speaking to you. this happens on all the islands. the concern is also for the island of kawaihae, one of the northern islands, and the island of maui.

>> all right, keoki kerr, thank you for your time tonight. be safe. >> you bet, veronica. nice to speak with you. we want to join our affiliate coverage now looking at live pictures from khnl, our affiliate there in hawaii. let's watch right here. >> a year and a half ago i was at this exact same spot during the japan tsunami and at that point the waves receded about 200 yards back into the ocean where you could see all the coral and the reef was exposed, and you could really definitively see the recession of the wave. this time that hasn't happened at all. in fact, it's tough to even tell if the waves at this point are going up and down at all. it seemed like we were standing there a wave came up maybe 6 inches higher than when we started and we got there 10:15 and watched until 10:45. at the time it didn't seem the waves were doing much of anything. i mean, on a normal night down

here watching the waves, no one woch paid any attention to it, in fact. the fact we were expecting or watching it, there was a little bit of fluctuation but i will say there was not that recession of the waves like we saw march 11, 2011, after the japanese tsunami and the waves affecting hawaii. it is certainly a very, very different scenario at this point out here as well. i will say there are a few dozen people watching and waiting. they have a light exposed a couple hundred yards out. some homeowners, some of them have evacuate, the ones right on the shoreline which is to be safe, of course. there's a wedding there at one of the houses, all set up for a wedding, so i'm sure the bride and groom are anxiously waiting to see what happens and making sure no damage to that house to

d disrupt their wedding plans for tomorrow. down here in the diamond head area on the south of oahu, not much going on at this point. we are certainly closely keeping an eye on it at this point but at this point the waves don't look very big. it's tough to notice if they were fluctuating at all and it is a different scenario from what we saw in march 2011 which is the japanese tsunami as well. we do not see that a recession of waves. it was a dramatic picture, if you'll recall, a year and a half ago when the waves were certainly going back and receding a couple hundred yards and we had the ebb and flow for a while. i mean, well into the night and overnight. at this point right now, certainly we're still watching but it is not to that point yet. >> i remember back in march of

2011 it was crowded where we were. >> reporter: i will say from this vantage point there are a few dozen people. the roads are blocked off up here, by the way. if people were here, they made it around a roadblock or were here early. there are a few dozen people. there are houses. i can see overlooking the ocean as well dozens and dozens of boats are out there. i see a lot of mariners heeded the warnings, got off their moorings and out of the harbor and went out into the ocean just in case so that their boats would not be damaged which, if you'll recall, we did have some damage it to boats and two piers a year and a half ago. so i think a lot of boaters out there -- i mean, i see a ton of blinking lights, several -- maybe a mile out offshore with boaters out there as well. people are out also as well. a lot of people that are up here say they do live in the

inundation zone so they heeded the warnings to evacuate as soon as they got that word as well. and right now there's a few police officers up here as well. everyone is on their phones. everyone has either an ipad or some wi-fi up here, they're all trying to be online, either checking weather reports or just passing the time right now. there is a hub of activity up here, no doubt. it is difficult -- i will say in just the last year and a half i was literally at this same spot a year and a half ago and we had a completely uninterrupted view of the ocean. i can tell there are some trees, shrubs that have grown up. we can still see the ocean but it's not as clear line of sight as it was even just a year and a half ago. but we can see the ocean from here. there are homeowners with floodlights out on the ocean which is where we just were a short time ago and we're going to head back there in a little while as well just to see if

there's any differences from what we saw just 10, 15 minutes ago as well and hopefully you've been seeing the video that we shot moments ago of the south shore down here off of diamond head. yeah, it is the hub of activity. there's a lot of things going on. i think a lot -- the perception of a lot of homeowners, though, i was talking to some homeowners who back a year and a half ago would never have gone down to the shoreline where we were at that point because of the fear of what could happen and, trust me, down here there was a lot more activity with the waves. this time that anxiety is not here quite as metropolitan uch e were not as anxious and nervous about going down to the shoreline. we are literally right down at the shoreline just watching the waves and trying to get a good shot not knowing exactly what will happen but with the feeling

that it was not going to be a huge, destructive, dangerous wave coming onshore and, sure enough, that didn't happen. in fact, we saw a fluctuation of maybe 6 inches, maybe at most a foot. but at this point it really wasn't much, and i think a lot of that is because it's low tide right now anyway. i think that's a blessing actually for us. if it was high tide maybe the water did come ashore down here. maybe with that wraparound, when it came across. maybe it did come across on the shoreline. >> you've been listening into our affiliate khnl showing us some live pictures from the beach at diamond head. the reporter there saying that things remain relatively calm and folks still on edge somewhat because we're not quite sure what this tsunami advisory is going to do. we want to go ahead and get you back to oahu where our nbc news producer olivia santini is

vacationing. she has been hunkered down in one of the high rises there. olivia, moments ago we were looking at live pictures of the beach in oahu and there was actually a girl who was in the water, and it's one of the things officials always tell you not to do. they tell you to stay off the beach. what are you seeing? >> from my vantage point i'm not seeing very much. i have a view of two avenues two blocks away from the actual beach at waikiki. there's not a soul in sight. it's quiet. actually i just got back. there's a couple people walking around on the sidewalk. four people on one end, another guy over here. but it seems very, very quiet. we have been watching the local reports as well and they were giving reports about the first wave hitting some of the different points on different islands, hilo bay got 8 inches for their first wave. some other parts i wasn't at liberty to hear exactly where but half a foot to maybe a foot

and a half and in some other places they mentioned hanalei bay. i'm trying to see what else i have here. again, that was -- so that was it. that's the first wave and they do caution there will be more than one. it sounds like initially they're calming some of the fears of what people have to expect from the get-go. we'll have to stand by. it's quiet. i don't hear fire engines, no warning signals, i don't see police going up and down the streets anymore. but i do see a taxicab driving by right now. i can only wonder where he's going. we can did see a local camera as well at one of the areas. we saw ten people standing around, watching and waiting and of course local officials are cautioning people to not do that. but you will always have your

looky-loos. they are driving down the avenue and maybe they're thinking it's no big deal. >> so where you are, there aren't people on the roads, because we are looking at the sky cams that show the congestion just piling up. there are folks -- >> i'm in the immediate area of waikiki beach. i'm literally two blocks off on seaside avenue, which is, forgive me, the main strip road. i can't actually see that road. that's the first road that comes off of the beach there so i can't tell you what the activity is like from my vantage point. on the side streets i see a couple of people here and there just kind of walking down the street. i hope they're not walking to the edge of the water but i can only presume they're heading to the beach. hopefully maybe just back to their hotel and up high. i honestly can't see from this

vantage point. >> i'll be honest with you, since we've been covering this in the past hour we have seen a girl who was wading in the water. i believe we even saw a man swimming at one point. there was a man down at the shore with a flashlight. so it doesn't look like people are necessarily heeding the warning even though it's something that people have to be well aware of that just because the firsts wave has come in and it hasn't been as big as they expected, you had mentioned 8 inches, also half a foot, this warning stays in effect until 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night. it's something people need to be aware of and they need to be safe. i'm veronica de la cruz. we'll take a quick break right here. we'll be back in just a moment.

i'm veronica de la cruz. a 7.7 magnitude quake struck off canada's west coast. we are looking at pictures off the coast of oahu. earlier today we had heard that one wave had come in some time after 10:28 p.m. eastern. we're looking at pictures now of gerard fryer, the scientific with the pacific tsunami center. we're going to go ahead and join our affiliate khnl for the next update. >> the fourth wave? >> yeah, and the waves, they are fairly close together, about 12 minutes from one wave to the next. that's a little bit faster but that's because this wasn't a great earthquake. for the japan earthquake they were 20 minutes from one wave to the next and were much more

dangerous because they were coming onshore for much longer. so these waves are intrinsically less dangerous because they're close together, and they're also small smaller. the largest we have seen so far is one and a half meters peak to trough five feet from the top of the wave to the bottom of the next wave. so that's like two and a half feet above ambient sea level. that's how high the water rose. >> i know you are looking at a trend. one of your colleagues said the numbers are getting bigger. >> they seem to be getting bigger. yeah. we usually looking at tsunamis on the islands, the biggest wave is usually in the first half dozen waves and from then on they tend to get smaller again. so there may be a bigger wave but i don't think we're going to have anything really large.

kahului two feet. our warning threshold is three feet. this was below the warning threshold, so it's beginning to look like the evacuation may not have been necessary. >> but it was still a good precaution. >> well, yes, it was still a great precaution. and since everyone has evacuated, let us do the job and make sure it's safe before we cancel. >> issued an evacuation effort based on the strength of the earthquake which was higher than you initially predicted, so that was above the threshold of what you typically go by? >> yeah. we issued the warning not just based on how big the earthquake was but how big the tsunami was. unfortunately, it was how big the tsunami was when it was measured off from the side. so we didn't have a good measurement on it. and it seems now like the forecast was an overprediction.

but let's wait and see. >> can you take us through that process? i know there are 13 spots you are monitoring chosely. based off of that, you have to see a trend going down wards. what's the mark that you have to reach before you can call it off? >> once it gets down below half a meter from peak to trough we would downgrade from a warning to an advisory. the advisory means you no longer have to remain evacuated but stayr and stay off the beach. once it's down below 30 centimeters peak to trough we cancel the advisory. the mistake we made with the japan tsunami was we were just looking at those 13 points and they didn't tell us what was happening in other places. and we actually canceled a little bit too early. >> but that's something you've been talking about, even though the waves that are coming in are

going down, you still have that concern within the islands of the energy generated that way. is that correct? >> yes. this tsunami, there's no question this tsunami is big enough to generate troublesome currents. for t fortunately it's the middle of the night, so i don't think many people are going to go swimming. if they did, they would get into difficulties, no question. >> we were told of another sign out in california that based off of that there's a little bit more optimism because you are seeing the trends what you predicted, is that fair to say? >> it's a little too early. we really need to wait for another wave. excuse me, i have to go back. >> gerard fryer, i saw one of his colleagues saying -- >> and we are listening to garrard fryer of the pacific warning center talking about the

waves that have come in thus far, the waves that have come in have been fairly close together and small enough that evacuations may not have been necessary. 120,000 people total have been evacuated from the hawaiian. four waves have hit on the island of maui. the largest was two and a half feet which falls below the threshold so evacuations probably weren't necessary but better to be safe than sorry. now to the weather channel and our jen carfagno. let's reset for a second and start from the very beginning because this is something that happened after a 7.7 earthquake hit off the coast of british columbia earlier this evening. >> reporter: veronica, good morning. and it was a 7.7 earthquake off

the coast of british columbia. when the size and the strength and the magnitude of the earthquake goes up there's a higher risk of a tsunami. i want to just take you back to the japan tsunami. that was an 8.9. when you go up into such magnitude it's an exponential increase in strength and effects. so the difference between the 7.7 earthquake and an 8.9 earthquake is significant. and that's important to know as well l. the 7.7, while it can cause a tsunami, obviously, has the ability to cause a massive tsunami as the 8.9 back in 2011 in japan. also, the type of earthquake this was most likely was the kind where the one plate will slip underneath another plate on the ocean floor, basically lifting the ocean floor, and that is the type that is likely to cause a tsunami because it would cause a water rise. and i am looking through some of the water rises that have o

occurred in hawaii but also in california as well. there was a 1.4 foot water rise in crescent city, california, 1.1 in marina cove, and while that is not terribly significant, you know, in smaller ports or in harbors, that can cause boats to be disrupted and is something to consider as well. the vertical evacuation, as i heard you were talking about, that's always important, third floor and up in buildings and off the beaches. and, as you mentioned, better safe than sorry. it seems like common sense to this point to wait and see what happens. the first wave is not usually the largest. and once they start to measure waves getting smaller, then you know you've reached peak and can resume normal activity. >> what about the press conference we were listening to with gerard fryer? he had said he thought that perhaps evacuations weren't necessary, but i understand that this advisory is in effect until

7:00 p.m. do you feel like folks in hawaii still have something to be worried about? >> reporter: and actually it's still a warning as far as i can tell. tsunami warning continues. these warnings do go on for hours. the waves themselves, he mentioned that these were coming in shorter bursts, every 12 minutes as opposed to a longer time. as the waves come in shorter bursts they're likely to be smaller. i think it's still certainly a threat. we have measurement we can look at and it makes sense to see them show the waves coming down. >> i understand these waves are measured by the buoy readings that come in. have you seen anything from is alarming tonight? what have you been seeing so far? >> reporter: similar to what gerard was seeing. i'm seeing waves in hawaii any

with where from a half a foot above the expect ed sea level t one and a half feet and nothing much more than that. it will rock the boats around in certain harbors. sort of like the bathtub effect. it will disrupt things in its way. but at this point as long as no one is on the beach, they're away from the water, they're safe. >> can you explain what was happening because i heard a reporter talk about the dangers involved with a tsunami because it might not necessarily be the waves coming in but the way the water recedes and then also the rip currents even after the fact which is why they want people to stay off the beach. you have the water come in and pull out very quickly. they would get pulled out very

quickly into the water and it's hard to recover from something like that. you get scared in a situation like that. the best advisory is to stay off the water and the beaches because it can happen quickly. >> we've seen people down by the beach and in the water, swimming, we've seen a man searching along the shore with a flashlight and we're looking at some pictures of folks actually who had had been evacuated earlier. it seems they did a good job of people evacuated to higher elevations. we spoke to one of our producers vacationing in oahu. she is on the tenth floor of a high rise. better to be safe than sorry. >> reporter: the tenth floor is a good place to be. she's in a good situation. now we have another water issue coming our way with hurricane

sandy on the east coast. >> let's switch from one weather event on one side of the country to the other and we're looking at this massive storm building in and i'm hearing it's a swath 795 miles wide? >> reporter: it's a huge storm. if you measure the cloud extent it's even larger than that. it's over 1,000 miles across. you look at the most tactile part of the storm. they extend up to 520 miles out from the center. it's about 260 miles off the coast of cape hatteras. winds extend 500 miles out from the center, even 200 miles offshore it's still having an impact on the coast of the carolinas. on the coast of the carolinas and virginia, it will continue through the mid-atlantic. the winds are going to be

picking up. the weather going downhill rapidly. >> we're looking at the hurricane status. right now it's a one and folks might look at that and think, okay, well, that's not a big deal. >> reporter: it is a big deal. we have a category 1 hurricane and because it's so large, often with a hurricane you have this core of very strong winds just around the center of the hurricane. with this situation and because it's going to be evolving into a hybrid type of situation, not just pure tropical, becoming post tropical or extra tropical the wind field will spread out to very strong winds over 50, possibly over 60 miles an hour. well away from the center which means if this comes ashore in new jersey you're going to feel very strong winds throughout new york state into western pennsylvania, even into ohio and west virginia. >> and it is just a massive storm system. we're looking at pictures of it right now. jen carfagno is with the weather

channel. jen, please stay there. we're going to take a quick break and we'll have more right after this.

i'm veronica de la cruz. we've been watching a tsunami warning for the past couple of hours looking at live pictures. this is the coast of oahu which looks relatively calm right now but we have been told the first waves have come in, they were relatively small. all under 3 1/2 feet. 120,000 people have been evacuated there in the hawaiian islands, evacuated to higher elevations, so this advisory does stay in effect until 7:00 p.m. tonight. we've also been watching these evacuations take place, lots of congestion as people have been trying to clear out.

people have been evacuating and get to go higher ground. that advisory stays in effect until 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night. i want to go ahead and join the weather channel's jen carfagno because she will get us up to date on a different situation that she has been watching that's, of course, taking place on the other side of the country and that, of course, is hurricane sandy. jen, are you on the phone with us? >> reporter: yes, i am, v veronica. looking at sandy, and you were talking about the water rise with the tsunami, you know, maybe a foot to 3 1/2 feet at most, we talk about hurricane sandy on the east coast of the u.s. here we are expecting a much more significant water rise because of the storm surge due to sandy, and we're watching the potential storm surge 4 to 8 feet above normal, 8 feet above normal. we have a lot going on with the

size of sandy, the fact it's been moving so slowly and continuing to push water to the coast and then also there's a full moon monday night, and that always makes the tides astronomically high anyway so that will be another factor. >> and is that why this might be the perfect storm, if you will, because i'm understanding this might be unprecedented in the sense there are three different weather systems moving in. you have a cold front moving in from one direction, the hurricane, and then you have another front. >> reporter: exactly. what we have is hurricane sandy, which is a large system on its own, and we've got the cold front in place and there's some disturbances within the jet stream that are going to combine with sandy basically and all of that will add energy to sandy, expand the wind field, make the wind field stronger. >> jen, if you could stick with us hear, we're going to get back with you in a second. this is the mayor of honolulu. we're watching our affiliate the coverage on khnl. let's listen.

as well as the air patrols and everyone where else. all that will be evaluated in 35 minutes. i want everyone to understand that this is not an exact science. when people are asking what can you tell us in five minutes or what can you tell us immediately? the answer is, using the best information we have to make an approximation in terms of time. it's not something we can sit there and say in 37 minutes we're going to be able to tell you a, b, c, d and g. they are dangerous and we have to always err on the side of safety and saving people's lives. so we're not going to put them at risk or danger so they should not be going back anywhere into the inundation zones, should not be going to the coastal areas, they should steer clear of them. and that is not going to be very, very clear no matter when it comes but we will make sure on the side of safety that we are certain the danger has passed. >> three and a half hours, is

that -- >> well, we're hoping they'll be able to give us a really good evaluation of the information so that they can tell us what they genuinely believe is going to be happening but, remember, are it's not necessarily the first wave. it's not necessarily the last wave. you can never tell with these events because, again, it's nature being nature. and once the wave comes in and once the force is subjected to the island, it will bounce back and forth and create all sorts of difficulties. and also remember there's a difference between returning to ground and returning to the ocean itself. because the ocean it self can be dangerous for many, many, many hours beyond the time when people return to their homes on land. >> have you gotten any reports so far of any damage on oahu caused by the tsunami? >> i haven't personally. >> all right. that was peter carlysle telling people not to return yet. he said it could be another two to three hours.

>> the harbors, all state harbors, are closed to inbound vessels and so they need to stay out there. they're asked to monitor channel 16 if you're in touch with somebody through cell phone. the helicopter we're told issued a coast al alert. they flew close down to the beaches from turtle bay and so all those homeless folks who are out there down in west oahu also should have gotten the message. now at this point, hopefully they're all okay and it was much ado about nothing but we'll see. >> those boaters you were talking about are out there for the night. at this point they're being told it's not until first light. is it likely they're going to allow people back in the harbor? listen to our affiliate there in honolulu, can khnl is our local affiliate there. listening to the mayor of honolulu just moments ago, peter carlisle, talking about how this is not an exact science and

residents need to heed warnings, asking folks there in hawaii not to go down to the coastal areas and to stay in the evacuation zones because you are never too sure. this is an advisory that stays in effect until 7:00 p.m. sunday night and even though he sees no damage. even though the waves that have come in thus far have been small, again, the waves they're looking at what set off the alarm bells over 3 1/2 feet, the scientists haven't quite seen that, they're still asking people to stay in the evacuation zones, to stay hunkered down wherever they are at. hopefully it is in an area that is of higher elevation. so it is now 11:38 p.m. in honolulu and we're looking at live pictures, again, things relatively calm there in hawaii. this was a tsunami warning issued and was supposed to come in some time around 10:28, but, like you're seeing, things relatively calm there. it doesn't mean we're not going

to continue to keep a close eye on it. however, we are watching another weather event in the united states. it's happening on the east coast. it is hurricane sandy and our jen carfagno has been watching that as well as this tsunami. jen, do you have an update on the tsunami at all? >> reporter: no, and what the mayor said was the latest information. we haven't had any new measurements come in recently of the waves. they've been about a foot, maybe a foot and a half at most to just over three. they haven't been that significant yet. as he also mentioned, it's not the first one. it's often the second or the third or the fourth that may be the larger one, so this is still a situation that warrants monitoring. and the vertical evacuation, third floor or 0 above away from the beaches makes perfect sense. it's the safest thing to do. >> what is the danger in all of this? when you're talking about a tsunami, obviously you want to clear the coast al areas.

is there anything else folks in hawaii should be aware of? >> reporter: this is not a huge tsunami that's going to wash over the shoreline. stay off the beaches, stay out of the water. if you're in port, get off your boat and get to higher ground. again, really simple evacuation to heed and it's actually an easy way to safe using common sense. >> jen carfagno is with the weather channel. she has been watching the tsunami, was getting us updated on the earthquake that took place earlier tonight, also watching hurricane sandy as it moves along the eastern s seaboard. and we're watching this massive, massive storm system kind of push north and, jen, if you can stay with us we're going to get an update on what exactly hurricane sandy is doing. but we're going to take a quick break here. i'm veronica de la cruz in the msnbc newsroom, tracking a lot of different weather events from

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i'm veronica de la cruz in the msnbc newsroom. we have been tracking a tsunami warning in hawaii after a 7.7 earthquake off the coast of british columbia. we want to get you live now to our affiliate khnl who has been covering the tsunami warning all eveni evening. let's take a listen right here. >> reporter: i will say that mariners are still 0 out there but it looks like, also, there's half as many lights out on the ocean as well with the boats out in the ocean as well. there are certainly still a lot

out there but it looks like from an hour ago the number of lights and mariners out there on the ocean have diminished as well. we're still keeping an eye out on the ocean as well. we'll wait until the all clear is given. we're keeping an eye watching the waves, seeing if there's any sort of movement. as you've all been saying throughout the night it could be a long event as well. we'll keep watching out here as well from diamond head and the south shore of oahu. guys, back to you. >> all right, okay. thank you, tim. steve has been at the scene at the pacific warning center with new information. steve? >> reporter: thank you. the more you talk to the scientists here in the pacific tsunami warning center they're very forthcoming, very informative, but you start to see they see things in a different light. we look for exact concepts, numbers, exactly what number wave we're on and the answer we got, the update and we're about an hour in and continual

movement. some islands are experiencing a certain number, others are on a number further back. so they couldn't pinpoint exactly what number we're on. wre do know the highest level, the highest rising of the ocean is 1.9 feet out in kahului. they are waiting for the last big wave and two hours after that is when they would typically call off the warning. we tried to ask when that big wave would be or if we've seen it already and they couldn't give us an exact response. something i thought was interesting they said one of the hard things to decide as to whether or not we've seen that biggest wave is that a lot of times when the waves come in and they start to wrap around, you get interference as the waves collide and you see the waves get bigger as this goes along. so we'll wait and see, again, they're going to give updates

about every 10, 15 minutes or as soon as we start to add more. we'll get more information to you in just a bit. >> thank you so much. we are all eager to hear but we'll have to be patient. twitter and facebook lights up about this. >> all kinds of information we're getting reports of surges. >> and we've been listening to our affiliate khnl on what is happening in hawaii. we had a reporter there standing outside of the pacific tsunami center talking about when exactly the last wave is going to come in and once that last wave comes in that is when they can go ahead and issue an all clear, two hours after the last wave comes in but so far what they have seen is the largest wave, i believe, at 1.9 feet in kahului. that doesn't necessarily register because what they are looking for are waves that are

above three feet. we'll bring in our jen carfagno who is a meteorologist at the weather channel and she is going to explain how that works. jen, what are the scientists looking for right now? >> reporter: what they're looking for is the peak wave, and you don't know that you've had the peak wave until you start getting lower measurements. and so it's normally not the first one, it's not the last wave that could be the largest of the tsunami waves. it's one in the middle. so they need to continue to get measurements which is why this warning does continue for several more hours. >> so you're saying that they're looking for the peak wave. the reporter there had been speaking about this last wave, so they haven't even seen the peak wave yet. >> exactly. you need a lot of measurements. you need several hours worth of measurements in order to see where you are and on the curve. again, the first one is not going to be the largest or the most damaging. and the last one won't be either but you won't know until you're at the last one until you see that peak of larger waves.

>> and what do you know in terms of measurements? we had heard that there was one of the tallest waves came in at 1.9 feet. have you been able to take a look at the measurements? >> reporter: i have and that's the largest one i've seen in kahului, maybe a half foot, 7 inches. haleiwa. they've all been fairly on the small side, not destructive. disrupt boats a bit. you wouldn't feel it if you were on a boat in port and there is more bounce for the water to bounce against basically sort of like in your bathtub. >> we're talking about peak waves, what would the measurements look like? >> reporter: well, at the most -- the highest i've seen was a one foot in makapuu and the peak was about a foot and

then it dropped three feet as the water receded. so i feel like these are some of the largest that we have seen but we need more measurements to know. >> meantime we know this warning is going to stay in effect until 7:00 p.m. sunday night for hawaii. would they issue that all clear once they see that peak wave come in two hours after? >> reporter: that's something that the pacific tsunami warning center would have to answer. i think for the public it's important to know to stay out of the water because even if the waves aren't a factor, the rip current risk will still be there so stay out of the water, stay off the beaches. life can go on as normal if you stay away from the water. >> stay away from the water and evacuate to higher elevation. we've seen people evacuating to high rise buildings and we know they've set up evacuations all over hawaii from i believe there's an army barracks that was set up. there have been multiple schools that have been set up to evacuate to.

and what we know now is the all clear has not been given. we're waiting for the peak wave to come in and then two hours after that i believe the pacific warning center should issue the all clear. i'm veronica de la cruz. we're going to take a quick break right here. we'll have more right after this.

i'm veronica de la cruz with some breaking news this hour. a tsunami warning has been in effect for hawaii after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off canada's west coast. we've been speaking with one of our nbc news producers who has been hunkered down in a high rise in oahu. her name is olivia santini and she joins us by phone. we've been speaking to you all night and looking at these live pictures now it seems like the beaches there are relatively calm but folks have not been given the all clear. what are you hearing? >> well, they haven't been given the all clear but i'm starting

to see a lot more activity out on the roads that i'm on. i'm off seaside avenue and royal hawaiian avenue as well, and taxis, a couple of vehicles, i've seen anywhere from 15 to 20 people at various times just walking towards waikiki beach and i don't know where they were hunkered down, if they're curious, if they think there is an all clear because they're hearing the initial waves are lower than what was initially forecast but you are right, they're cautioning us, of course, to continue to monitor the situation and wait for a couple more waves to come through before they give an all clear. but these people are not heeding that warning. i don't know if they just don't know that and think the worst is over or they just don't care and want to go take a look. >> and, olivia, you are in a high-rise hotel there in oahu. as far as i understand it you are vacationing. how exactly did you hear about the tsunami warning? >> actually my cousin lives here on oahu, in the barracks.

her husband is stationed here. we were scheduled to meet up with her tomorrow. we were getting ready to go down to rory's restaurant, which is right off of the water there on waikiki beach. we were getting ready for dinner when she called me and told me to turn the television on and there you have it. we were hearing about the warning, and so we put everything down, we changed our clothes into something a little bit more just in case we needed to get on the road, jeans and sneakers on, and were assessing the situation. at one point we thought we would head 0 over to their area because they are up in one of the highest points of the island but soon realized that the traffic here in waikiki especially on a saturday evening is quite congested and it might take us longer to get there before the waves hit, so we didn't want to take that chance and because we are on the tenth floor, the hotel advised us we should be safe and would probably be better to stay put so we did. >> like we were saying earlier,

they have not yet issued that all clear and the warning is still in effect until 7:00 p.m. tonight, sunday night. so, you know, regardless, it's always better to be safe than sorry and, olivia, we do hope you enjoy the rest of your time out there and do stay safe for us. thanks so much for speaking with us tonight. >> sure, thank you. so from one weather event to the other, we are tracking hurricane sandy. the category 1 storm continued its slow churn along the eastern seaboard. the hurricane is expected to make landfall in the area of delaware or new jersey but the impact is going to be felt hundreds of miles in each direction with high winds, severe rain and flooding from the carolinas to massachusetts. jen carfagno is standing by at the weather channel to bring us up to date on this. jen, i believe there was at 5:00 a.m. eastern an update. is that right? >> reporter: that's right. as of the 5:00 a.m. advisory it's still a category 1 hurricane, winds 75 miles per hour.

the movement has been at 13 miles an hour to the northeast. we are expecting it to make -- continue to make that turn towards the north and the northwest over the next 24 hours. what's most significant about sandy is its size. right now it has subtropical storm force winds out to 520 miles from its center, and if you measure the cloud shield from end to end we're talking more than 1,000 miles, so there's going to be a very large and widespread impact from the wind and the rain from sandy. >> what is the fear here? is it the wind? is it the rain? i heard this might be a snow event? >> reporter: yes, and surge, too. there are so many dimensions to this storm. when it comes to the coastal surge, it could be 4 to 8 feet and certainly where it makes landfall will be the worst of the coastal surge, but with that type of surge and the fact we have a full moon, it could be destructive at the coast which is why some coastal evacuations are taking place. the winds, they're going to be 40, 50, possibly 60 miles per

hour for a be span of hundreds of miles across. we're talking from new york state to new jersey, connecticut, rhode island, down through delaware, maryland, virginia, back to ohio. so a large area with gusty winds that could take down trees and take down power lines. then there's the snow aspect, and we are expecting more than a foot, maybe more than 2 feet of snow in the west virginia mountains. and the rain. local areas that get more than 10 or 12 inches of rain coming into the rivers to cause river flooding into those communities in eastern pennsylvania and new jersey really need to be on guard for that. >> and let's talk about when this storm makes landfall because i understand that even though landfall might happen in delaware, it might happen in new jersey, just because you aren't located in those areas doesn't mean that you shouldn't take precautio precautions.

>>. >> reporter: exactly. we've been feeling the impacts of sandy since yesterday. we'll be feeling it for days in florida, but on the coast of north carolina we've been gusting over 40 miles an had hour this morning. it's more than 300 miles offshore right now and we're still feeling winds gusting over 40 miles per hour. so we're feeling it in norfolk, virginia, checking winds gust ing to 35 miles an hour with rain falling. far away from the center you're going to feel the impact which makes this very significant and impactful to millions, to tens of millions of people. >> we're looking at pictures right now of folks preparing in emergen new jersey, sandbagging, clearing out sand, boarding up their windows. all in preparation of this storm. for folks who might not necessarily feel like they are in danger because they're not in the storm's path, how should folks be preparing for this? what should they be doing right now? >> reporter: i think everyone needs to be ready to lose power because of the strong winds that are going to continue for such a long period of time. your trees in