While Monday's tsunami response was ultimately more of a drill than a true emergency, the traffic it triggered offered a real-time test of Oahu’s evacuation capacity — one that state officials admit was deeply strained.

A small California coastal city near the border with Oregon that has recorded dozens of tsunamis, including one that killed 11 people more than 60 years ago, saw little damage Wednesday as locals returned to their routines amid sunny skies in the town known as a tsunami magnet.