Tsunami hits Hawaii after Canada earthquake

[NewsCaster]

Eugene Tanner / APVisitors and Oahu residents watch the water level in the Ala Wai Harbor in Hawaii for the arrival of a tsunami on Saturday.By NBC News staff and news wiresUpdated at 5:56 a.m. ET: Hawaii was hit by a tsunami on Saturday night after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Canada's British Columbia, prompting the authorities to order  at least 100,000 people on the island state to move to higher ground.

 The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the first tsunami wave was three  feet high and less forceful than expected. Some forecasts had predicted a wave  of up to six feet high.

"The tsunami arrived about when we expected it  should," Senior Geophysicist Gerard Fryer told reporters at a news conference,  saying: "I was expecting it to be a little bigger."

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