ALEXANDRE DA SILVA / ADASILVA@STARBULLETIN.COMKailua-Kona resident Shannon Racoma filled up a water container at Wal-Mart yesterday while talking about the approaching Hurricane Flossie with Linda Gallagher. CLICK FOR LARGE |
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Kona crams in last-minute items
Jay Fisher finally began taking Hurricane Flossie seriously yesterday afternoon when his son came home from school and said classes would be canceled today.
"I said, 'OK, maybe there's something to this,' so I came out and bought all this stuff," the 39-year-old bartender said while pushing a cart with $40 worth of bottled water and charcoal outside Lowe's in Kailua-Kona.
It was a scene repeated throughout the day as residents and tourists brought traffic and some chaos to this beach town on the Big Island's west coast. Shoppers jockeyed for parking and left stores with overflowing carts in preparation for the approaching storm.
"I got water, a lot of beverages and some dry food," said Sean Green, who is visiting from Alberta, Canada, with his pregnant wife and two young children.
As he loaded up his car on the Wal-Mart parking lot, Green said he planned to face the storm and vacation for two more weeks.
Business at Wal-Mart was slow during the weekend but surged early yesterday afternoon when Mayor Harry Kim declared a state of emergency. Classes were canceled, and children accompanied their parents as they went around town to pack up.
To handle the sudden spike in customers, Wal-Mart stayed open 24 hours starting last night, said manager John P. Yates III. Workers at Lowe's also said doors might stay open all night if people continued showing up in force.
Keone Grace stopped at Wal-Mart on his way home from work to get water, batteries and a flashlight. His company, Structural Dynamics, announced it would be closed today, and Grace planned to spend the day taping windows and "getting ready, making sure everything's ready and that we are prepared."
Linda Gallagher waited one hour in line to fill up nine gallons of water, the last item missing in her Kealakekua home. Gallagher, who endured two hurricanes in South Palm Beach, Fla., in 2004, said she still has leftover supplies from when a 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit just off the coast here in October.
"We had everything when the earthquake hit, because if the lights go out, you need the same stuff. The canned goods are still there waiting for us, the candles and the propane grill," she said. "We are also prepared to evacuate if we need to."
At ice cream parlors, restaurants, coffee shops and beaches, people could be heard talking about their plans to flee to shelters or head north in case the storm, expected to pass south of here, took an unusual turn. Several people mentioned the path of Hurricane Iniki, which spun north and hit Kauai in 1992, killing three people and causing widespread damage.
Maile Akina, assistant manager of Whalers General Store in Kailua Bay, left the radio on the news so she could update tourists about the storm.
"They ask me a lot of questions, but I really don't know what to tell them," said Akina, who was debating whether to close her beachfront store, which sells aloha shirts, sunscreen and souvenirs. "There was this lady who was really worried about it. She left with a worried look, like she was terrified."