Illinois family among hundreds who watched cruise ship leave without them during tsunami warning

“I would describe it as a once in a lifetime experience that I hope I never have to go through again,” Jeff Endres said.

VANDALIA, Ill. — An Illinois family says tsunami warnings triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia turned their family vacation to Hawaii upside down.

“We were expecting it to be a memorable trip making good memories,” Jeff Endres said. “Unexpectedly, we got a memory we would never forget.”

The Endres family was touring the volcanoes near Hilo when the Hawaiian Islands were placed under a tsunami warning.

“The driver said he would get us back to the ship on time,” Endres said. “At that time, we didn’t even have an idea what time the ship was leaving.”

After rushing back to port, the Endres family couldn’t believe what they witnessed.

“There were hundreds and hundreds of people standing there watching the ship sail away,” Endres said. “It was very disorganized and there were children crying.”

Amidst the confusion, a volunteer shuttle driver took the family to a local high school gymnasium.

“It took us a little over two hours to go 4 miles to higher ground,” Endres said. “The traffic was a nightmare. It was chaos everywhere.”

After sleeping in bus, and about 19 hours on shore, the Endres family was overjoyed when the ship pulled back into port.

“The passengers that were on the cruise ship were all on the decks and they started clapping for us,” Endres said.

In hindsight, Endres acknowledges things could’ve turned out much worse.

“I would describe it as a once in a lifetime experience that I hope I never have to go through again,” Endres said.

Endres told 5 On Your Side the Norwegian Cruise line has offered to refund 20% of the cost of their cruise and reimburse all expenses they had on the island.

After cancelling multiple legs of the trip, the ship is expected to return to port in Honolulu on Saturday.

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