Great news! Downgraded from evacuation to advisory! Here's the room :

鈥� Catherine Lempke (@Cat_Lempke)

Tofino and Ucluelet residents breathed a collective sigh of relief around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning as the Tsunami Warning that had evacuated them from their homes and into their community鈥檚 emergency muster stations was cancelled.

鈥淭he warning has been downscaled to an advisory. So, that鈥檚 good news鈥� Ucluelet鈥檚 Manager of Environmental and Emergency Services Karla Robison said into her megaphone at the Ucluelet Secondary School around 4:30 a.m. 鈥淲e鈥檙e safe to go home.鈥�

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The school鈥檚 gym was packed as hundreds of community members had gathered after receiving alerts to evacuate after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit off Alaska around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. Local police and members of the Ucluelet Volunteer Fire Brigade were knocking on residents homes around 3 a.m. advising them to head to the gym.

After relaying the good news that the warning had been cancelled, Robison explained an advisory means to stay away from docks, shorelines and harbours.

鈥淎 warning means you need to evacuate, an advisory means you don鈥檛 go surfing, you don鈥檛 go hang out on the docks, you don鈥檛 go boating, you don鈥檛 go fishing,鈥� she said. 鈥淎n advisory is just to stay away from the ocean because there could be some stronger currents and there could be some smaller-type surges, but no large waves.鈥�

An automated message from Tofino鈥檚 One Call emergency notification system went out at 4:42 a.m. advising Tofitians the Tsunami Warning had been cancelled.

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Ucluelet local Pieter Timmermans said he and his wife Barbara Schramm were in bed when they heard the tsunami siren.

鈥淲e thought, 鈥極kay, something鈥檚 going on,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淲e were waiting for a text to come through on the cell phone, but nothing came through so I called the local RCMP and they said, 鈥楾here鈥檚 a tsunami alert鈥� and we boogied out.鈥�

Schramm added that she was surprised a tsunami advisory wasn鈥檛 immediately posted on the district of Ucluelet鈥檚 website.

鈥淪till in my bed, I looked for that and there was no notice,鈥� she said.

Timmermans said he was in the school鈥檚 gym by the time he received an alert on his cell-phone and added he was impressed with how many people heeded the warning and made their way to the gym.

鈥淚t was really interesting to see everybody get up and at 鈥榚m and obey the warnings,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was a good learning exercise. Even though the texts didn鈥檛 go out in time, I鈥檓 sure next time this will help iron out some of the wrinkles.鈥�

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鈥淚t was a really good drill,鈥� said Ukee local Julie Chernis. 鈥淣eighbours came to the door and pounded on our door and then, 10 minutes later, the fire department came鈥�It was neighbour-to-neighbour. They were banging on the door. They knew we were there and they didn鈥檛 let up until we got up and said 鈥楬ey, we鈥檙e on the go.鈥欌��

Julie鈥檚 husband Ed Chernis suggested he鈥檇 like to see a quicker alert from the district office next time.

鈥淲hat gets me is that, if the earthquake was at 1:30 a.m., why did the emergency notification from the district get to me at 3:49 a.m.?鈥� he asked. 鈥淚 had to rely on a neighbour to come pounding on our door to let us know.鈥�

Ucluelet Mayor Dianne St. Jacques told the Westerly News inside the gym that the community responded well to the event and that she and her team will discuss the evacuation event and ways to improve in the future.

鈥淚t was a very good dress rehearsal. As always, there are things to learn when these things happen so we鈥檒l definitely have a debrief with our gang here, but everybody was very professional and very calm and did what needed to be done. I think we鈥檙e on a good path with emergency preparedness,鈥� she said.

鈥淭he community did awesome鈥�The firemen did a great job getting to all the low lying areas, evacuating everyone and getting them up here to this reception area. People were very patient and very calm. So I鈥檓 very impressed and, luckily, it turned out to be downgraded to just an advisory so we鈥檙e very grateful for that.鈥�