UPDATE: MAUI, Hawaii (KKCO) - Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey is vacationing on the Hawaiian Islands and has been keeping a close eye on both the local and national media.

Hilkey says he is currently in a hotel on West Maui. He says he's on the 4th floor, and isn't worried about tidal waves.

Hilkey says as of 4 a.m. Hawaiian time, one 1-foot wave has hit one of the islands. He says officials are warning of more waves hitting the islands throughout the morning, but the emergency response is very organized. He says he's been watching both the local Hawaiian media and the national media, and he says there's quite a difference in their reporting.

Hilkey moved his car from the hotel parking lot near the shoreline to higher ground. But he's staying put in his hotel room.

He says he will check back in with 11 News after he gets some sleep to update us on the situation.

While the tsunami hasn't caused widespread damage yet in Hawaii, there have been up to 300 bodies located in Japan where the earthquake struck earlier today.

A 4.5 magnitude hit the big island of Hawaii 3 a.m. local time.
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TOKYO, Japan (AP) - Thousands of people are roaming the streets of Tokyo or are stranded in offices and train stations as the capitol's usual bustling traffic stood still after the biggest earthquake in modern Japanese history.
Police have raised the death toll from Japan's earthquake to 60, with 56 missing.

Friday's magnitude 8.9 temblor shook buildings furiously and cut off this nation's prized, sprawling train system, paralyzing the daily commuter flow of more than 10 million people in the Tokyo area.

Some people just gave up and began walking home to the suburbs. Long lines formed at usually unused public phone booths as mobile phones failed to work.

Japan's earthquake resulted in Tsuami warnings as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska, and the entire U.S. West Coast.

Tsunami sirens have been sounding and coastal areas are being evacuated in Hawaii, where the first waves are expected to hit about 6AM, Pacific time.

A geophysicist for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says the biggest waves to hit Hawaii could reach for than 6 feet.