On the North Shore, people lined up for gasoline, food, bottled water and
propane and made their deliberations about whether they should stay or go to
higher ground.

Streams of cars moved through the 7-Eleven and Tesoro gas stations in Haleiwa,
while more than a dozen people waited in vain at the 76 station, which did
not open as scheduled at 5 a.m.
Jeff Koch, who has a fish farm in Mokuleia, filled up four gasoline
containers and his truck at 7-11 so he would have enough fuel for his
generator in the event of a power loss or if he gets cut off by flooding.
Koch is staying. “My plan now is to have another cup of coffee,” he said
with a laugh.
Traffic, however, appeared to suggest that many people are heading into
town.
Summer Maxemo, a restaurant worker who lives in a first-floor condominium at
Turtle Bay Resort, said a friend called her at 4 a.m. with a warning about
the tsunami.
“He said `This is serious,’” she said.
Maxemo filled a small suitcase with some belongings, grabbed her dog, Reef,
and jumped in her pick-up truck. She hoped to stay with friends up in
Pupukea.

She was more worried about her dog, who was sick, than her own state of
mind. “He’s freaking out,” she said.

Shelby Matevich, a freshman at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, had taken the
bus with friends to the North Shore on Friday. They were hanging out near
Pipeline last night when they started receiving alerts from the university
on their cell phones.

“I really didn’t take it that seriously until about an hour ago,” said
Matevich, who is from Illinois and was experiencing her first tsunami scare.

With no other way back into town, Matevich and her friends walked more than
two miles down Kamehameha Highway and were waiting at a bus stop past Waimea
Bay. They were trying to hitch a ride, but seemed resigned to the bus.

“That’s all we can do,” she said.

Outside Foodland at Pupukea, a crowd had gathered before the store was set
to open at 6 a.m.

John and Kiley Hyatt, attorneys who live near Three Tables, were waiting to
buy propane, bottled water and other essentials.

“We’re out of wine,” Kiley Hyatt joked.

The Hyatts said it is conceivable they could be cut off if the tsunami hits
and causes flooding or damage, but they were not worried. They planned to
stay.

“If we were worried we’d already be headed to higher ground,” John Hyatt
said.