Oprah Winfrey has denied widespread claims on the internet that she blocked a private road on her property in Hawaii, preventing tsunami evacuees from quickly reaching higher ground.

Winfrey has a residence on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where tsunami warnings were issued after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake shook Russia.

Nicole Nichols, a spokeswoman for the billionaire talk show host, told AFP that Winfrey's team contacted local law enforcement and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the road was open "as soon as we heard the tsunami warnings."

"All other reports are false," Nichols said.

On social media, angry users accused Winfrey of refusing to give up her road to evacuees, despite heavy traffic on the island. Some posts garnered millions of views. 

But Maui authorities repeatedly cited the route as an option in emergency alerts.

Nichols said local law enforcement agencies were helping residents cross the road 50 cars at a time and that the road would remain open "as long as necessary."

Later, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center downgraded the threat level in Hawaii to a tsunami advisory, and Maui authorities lifted evacuation orders.

The media mogul also faced misinformation after wildfires ravaged Maui in 2023, with conspiracy theorists falsely claiming that she had painted her roof blue to avoid high-energy lasers, which they claimed were the cause of the fires. Others claimed that she had set them herself in order to seize the land. | BGNES