After Oprah Winfrey was accused on social media of refusing to open her private road on the island of Maui amid tsunami warnings to allow people access to higher ground, her team hit back.

Winfrey has assured fans that she opened up her private road in Hawaii "as soon as" she heard the tsunami warnings.

If you were to believe some posts on social media, the billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey — who lives in Maui part-time — was accused of callously refusing to let evacuees use her private road to shorten their travel time. But it's typically a bad idea to believe what you see on social media.