Oprah forced to deny she closed private Maui road to tsunami evacuees

Oprah Winfrey’s spokesperson on Tuesday hit back at claims, including from local Maui residents, that she kept her private road on the island closed as people tried to drive upcountry to escape incoming tsunami waves triggered by a powerful 8.8-magnitude underseas earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

In a statement shared with Newsweek and People, the spokesperson said: “As soon as we heard the tsunami warnings, we contacted local law enforcement and FEMA to ensure the road was opened. Any reports otherwise are false.”

Oprah owns more than 2,000 acres of land on Maui, east of the coastal city of Wailea and on the western side of a dormant volcano called Haleakalā, according to Newsweek.

Following the earthquake, tsunami warnings were issued for all islands in Hawaii at about 2:45 p.m. local time, with authorities saying that the tsunami waves were expected to arrive by about 7 p.m. MauiNow reported. The Maui Emergency Management Agency eventually lifted evacuation orders just after 11 p.m. local time after the National Weather Service downgraded the tsunami warning to an advisory.

But gridlocked roads were reported all over Maui Tuesday afternoon and evening, as people sought higher ground in case the waves proved deadly. Claims that Winfrey kept her private road closed flourished on social media and seemed to be supported by a video, posted to X and viewed by more than 2 million times, which was was recorded by a self-described Maui resident. The video showed the man driving by what he said was the entrance to Winfrey’s private road.

“Look at this. I think they’re trying to open Oprah’s road,” the man said. His video showed images of law enforcement vehicles stationed at the entrance to the road and motorists not able to go past them.

“Still closed,” the man said about the road. “Man! She’s got her own road from Wailea all the way upcountry, which is the safe zone.”

A community note was added to another X post, which also claimed that Winfrey kept her road closed. The note said that the road was in fact open, citing the Maui Police Department. A County of Maui notice read: “Maui Veterans Highway is congested; use Cane Haul Road toward Hansen and Pulehu roads to get to Kula. Road above Makena Golf Course provides access to Ulupalakua. Also, Oprah’s road is open to get Upcountry, according to Maui Police Department.”

Because of the gridlock on many roads, some Maui locals and tourists slept in their vehicles Tuesday night, CNN reported. Later Tuesday, CNN reported that a tsunami wave of more than 5 feet was reported in Kahului, on the north-central shore of Maui island in Hawaii, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It’s not known whether Winfrey was in Maui on Tuesday. She’s lived part-time in Maui for about 15 years and she’s opened her private road in the past in times of crises, including in 2019 and 2023, when she opened it to help people escape wildfires, Newsweek reported.

But the former talk-show host and billionaire media mogul faced some local hostility for her response to the wildfires in 2023, which were centered in and around Lahaina and killed 115 people. In the aftermath of fires, she was accused of hiring a private firefighting team to protect her property. Her spokesperson at the time denied the claim, which also was debunked, in part because her property wasn’t close to the fires, Poynter reported. 

Winfrey also faced blowback for her joint effort with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, another part-time resident of Maui, to establish a “People’s Fund of Maui” to raise money to aid fire victims’ recovery. While Winfrey and Johnson started the fund with a $10 million donation, the two massively wealth celebrities were criticized for not donating enough of their own money to the fund and for expecting regular people to provide the bulk of the support.