JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A powerful earthquake early Saturday set off a tsunami warning for hundreds of miles of Alaskan and Canadian coastline, but the alert was canceled after no damaging waves were generated.

The magnitude-7.5 quake and the tsunami warning caused concern in some coastal communities, with people rushing to higher ground as alarms sounded.

But the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center later said the waves were too small to pose a threat, at just six inches above normal sea level in places like Sitka and Port Alexander.

“Initially, in the first 15 to 20 minutes, there might have been a bit of panic,” Chief Sheldon Schmitt of the Sitka Police Department said. Residents calmed down, he said, as the town waited for the all clear.