Yunji de Nies, who has been a correspondent for ABC News since 2006, is returning to her native Hawaii for a job at KITV in Honolulu.

“It was a no-brainer for me,” de Nies told the Honolulu Star Advertiser of her return to Hawaii. “I just didn’t think it would happen so soon.”

de Nies begins September 10 as co-anchor of the 6 p.m. newscast alongside Paula Akana and the 10 p.m. newscast alongside Kenny Choi. She will also do some reporting for the ABC-affiliated KITV. At ABC News, she was an Atlanta-based correspondent who covered the Southeast region across all the network’s platforms.

Stations in Honolulu have essentially become 24-hour news channels as the islands of Hawaii are threatened by a tsunami stemming from Friday’s earthquake off the coast of Japan.

ABC-affiliate KITV, CBS-affiliate KGMB, and NBC-affiliate KHNL all extended coverage from their late local newscasts to provide constant live coverage of the tsunami, including a news conference with the director for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Chip McCreery, who warned of the destruction that a looming tsunami could cause.

The recent shared services agreement between KGMB and KHNL was evident throughout the night as the stations’ news coverage emanated from the same anchor desk with the Hawaii News Now duo of Stephanie Lum and Keahi Tucker (left), along with meteorologists Ben Gutierrez and Dan Cooke. Lum and Tucker powered through the night together.

“This is exciting,” Tucker said early on in the night. “I wouldn’t be up at 1:30 if it wasn’t exciting.” Lum, Tucker, and Gutierrez handed it off to the morning team at 5:00 a.m.  Lum told anchors Steve Uyehara and Tannya Joaquin that they had stuffed the desk with snacks for them. Read more