Oprah Winfrey Denies Maui Road Closure Claims
I am Sage Matthews, bleary-eyed at 2 AM, and of course this happened. In yet another sign that we are living in perpetual chaos, Oprah Winfrey has found herself accused of blocking a private road on her Maui estate just as locals scrambled to escape a tsunami warning. Grab your popcorn and brace yourself for the meltdown.
What went down? On Tuesday, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake rattled Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and triggered tsunami alerts across the Pacific. By the early hours of Wednesday, Hawaii braced for four- to five-foot waves crashing near Oahu, Kahului, and Hilo, according to the BBC and CNN. Residents from Maui to California’s coast scrambled to evacuate with adrenaline-fueled urgency.
Enter the spectacle: Oprah’s private driveway, which threads through her $60 million Wailea-to-Kula estate, allegedly remained locked just as locals tried to flee. Social media lit up with furious claims that the media mogul had “hoarded” a vital escape route. But before you sharpen your pitchfork, Oprah’s spokesperson went on a fact-finding mission, contacting local law enforcement and FEMA the moment warnings blasted across the airwaves. “Any other reports are otherwise false,” the rep told People magazine on Wednesday.
Local authorities quickly chimed in. The Maui Police Department confirmed in a written statement that “Oprah’s road is open to get Upcountry.” Police officers and FEMA reps were coordinating to escort up to fifty cars at a time, ensuring residents could dash to higher ground. Hawaii Emergency Management Agency director Stephen Logan later downgraded the threat to an advisory, encouraging evacuees to return once the all-clear sounded.
If you’re wondering how these monster waves work, ask Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska. Quoted by the Associated Press, Snider reminded us that a tsunami isn’t a single tidal surge but a relentless series of waves that can lash a coastline for hours. Picture ocean-sized ripples barreling at jet speeds, slowing down to heap water onshore like an unstoppable bulldozer.
As if we didn’t have enough drama, Oprah’s Maui retreat has already played a cameo in last year’s wildfire fallout. In August 2023, she and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson each pitched in $10 million for relief, only to be accused of guilting everyday folks into donating more. One Instagram critic sneered that billionaires demanding charity from the paycheck-to-paycheck masses was “a joke.”
And there you have it. A tsunami warning, a celebrity estate, and another round of online outrage. You can almost set your watch by it. Somehow, amid all the panic, emergency agencies confirm the road remained open. But will the internet let this one go? Probably not.
Anyway, can’t wait to see what predictable outrage happens next.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and People Magazine, Maui Police Department, BBC, CNN, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, National Tsunami Warning Center, Associated Press
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
