Oprah refutes claims she blocked private Hawaii road from tsunami evacuees

"People on Maui, Hawaii trying to escape the tsunami are BEGGING Oprah to open her private road to higher ground, and she's STILL REFUSING," says a July 30, 2025 post on X, which includes a video of gridlocked traffic and a map demarcating the road on the Hawaiian island of Maui. "TIME IS RUNNING OUT."

Image

Screenshot from X taken July 30, 2025

Similar posts fanned out across X and other social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

"Americans are trying to escape from a literal tsunami and Oprah was allowed to be like, nope. Drown," says another.

The narrative took off after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake -- one of the strongest tremors ever recorded -- struck Russia's sparsely populated Far East, causing tsunamis up to four meters (12 feet) high across the Pacific Ocean and sparking evacuation orders from Hawaii to Japan.

Winfrey has a residence on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where tsunami warnings were issued July 29 before the situation was later downgraded to a tsunami advisory. Video footage and news reports documented heavy traffic piling up as residents abandoned the coastal areas of Maui and other islands.

But the posts suggesting Winfrey never provided evacuees access to her private road -- which continued to spread hours after evacuation orders had been lifted -- are false.

Nicole Nichols, a spokesperson for Winfrey, told AFP in a July 30 email that the media mogul's team contacted local law enforcement and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to ensure the road was opened "as soon as we heard the tsunami warnings."

Nichols said local law enforcement had been on site "helping residents through 50 cars at a time to ensure everyone's safety" and that the passageway would remain open "as long as necessary."

"Any reports otherwise are false," she said.

Some videos shared to social media appeared to show the process playing out.

Maui County officials also repeatedly listed the route as an option in emergency alerts (archived here, here, here, here and here).

"Oprah's road is open to get Upcountry," the county wrote on Facebook and its website, citing the Maui Police Department (archived here).

AFP contacted the police and the Maui Emergency Management Agency for additional comment, but no responses were forthcoming.

The FEMA press office said it did not receive contact from Winfrey's team, but also denied having the authority to open or close private roads.

Winfrey previously faced torrents of 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 that she ignited them herself as part of a land grab.

She has also warded off past hoaxes claiming she was arrested for sex trafficking, which appeared to have originated with the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the tsunamis here.