Oprah Winfrey rejects claims she closed Hawaii road amid tsunami warning

WASHINGTON – Oprah Winfrey refuted widespread online claims on July 30 that she blocked off a private road on a Hawaii property she owns, preventing tsunami evacuees from quickly reaching higher ground.

Winfrey, 71, has a residence on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where tsunami warnings were issued after

a magnitude 8.8 earthquake

struck Russia.

Ms Nicole Nichols, a spokesperson for the American billionaire talk show host, said Winfrey’s team contacted local law enforcement and the United States’ Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the road was opened “as soon as we heard the tsunami warnings”.

“Any reports otherwise are false,” she said in a statement.

Across social media, angry users accused Winfrey of refusing to make her road available at any point to evacuees, despite heavy traffic on the island. Some posts amassed millions of views.

But Maui officials repeatedly listed the route as an option in emergency alerts. “Oprah’s road is open to get upcountry,” the county wrote, citing the Maui police department.

Ms Nichols said local law enforcement had been helping residents through the road 50 cars at a time and that the passageway would remain open “as long as necessary”.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre later downgraded the situation in Hawaii to a tsunami advisory, and Maui authorities lifted evacuation orders.

The media mogul also faced disinformation after

wildfires devastated Maui

in 2023, with conspiracists falsely claiming she had painted her roof blue to evade high-energy lasers they blamed for the blazes, and others saying she ignited them herself as part of a land grab. AFP