Tsunami warning along Pacific coast prompts California residents to pull their boats from the water

(NBC, KYMA/KECY) - A tsunami warning along the entire Pacific coast led people to pull their boats from the water at the Santa Cruz Harbor Tuesday night.

The warning was triggered by a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia, the sixth largest quake ever recorded.

Officials warned residents in the Santa Cruz area of the possibility of waves ranging from two to five feet.

Numerous boats were pulled from the water at the harbor as a precuation as everyone kept a close eye on the ocean.

The National Weather Service confirmed some waves did come ashore in Santa Cruz County at 12:48 a.m. Pacific. However, no inundation of water was expected and no evacuations were ordered.

"A lot of people right now at the launch ramp are pulling their boats out of the water. People with smaller boats and trailers, it's pretty easy for them to do. so they are going to pull their boats out just as an extra precaution.

So right now the forecast is less than a foot for Monterey Bay. It's a little bit unknown. We usually have a bigger hit here, so it could be something like two feet. but with two feet of tsunami, it just means we are going to have a lot of water coming in an out of the harbor for quite a long, a good long time, something like that. So, we are really concerned about the currents."

John Haynes, Senior Deputy Harbor Master

Tsunami warnings throughout the state of Hawaii were downgraded overnight as the most immediate danger passed.