Hawaii tsunami warning issued after Canadian quake

[NewsCaster]

By NBC News staff and news wiresUpdated at 4:15a.m. ET: Hawaii's civil defense officials issued a tsunami warning for the state after a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the west coast of Canada on Saturday evening.

"This is obviously a very very dangerous situation," Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle told local television, urging residents to move away from the coastline immediately.

The National Weather Service also issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas of British Columbia and southern Alaska. The first wave of the small tsunami, about four inches, hit the southeast Alaska coastal community of Craig.

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