With Hurricane Lane Bearing Down, Hawaii Braces For The Worst
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- Hurricane Lane is bearing down on Hawaii and a steady stream of people have arrived in Los Angeles to get out of the way of the huge storm.
KCAL9's Tom Wait was at LAX where many residents were arriving to avoid the torrential rain, high winds and dangerous surf.
In Hawaii tonight, emergency alerts are sounding as Lane is creeping closer.
"Everyone is freaking out. There's no waters in the store," said Kelsey Brown, a meteorologist stationed at Pearl Harbor.
She and her family were so concerned about the hurricane, she bought a first-class ticket home.
"I couldn't get gas," she said. "The line was like a mile long to get gas."
"We're from California," said mom Ally Wanagitis. "We don't have hurricanes. Just not prepared, with the amount of people that are there, when they run out of things on an island, they run out of things."
Photos from the insides of grocery stores in Oahu show them cleaned out.
Jody Benson, another traveler, says people are not taking any chances.
"All the Gatorade, water, toilet paper - just gone," she said.
Hurricane hunters with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) flew into Hurricane Lane to get a better sense of its sheer power -- high winds, rain and surf could pound the islands. Officials in Hawaii are taking no chances. They're putting out the word that folks need to be prepared and listen for alerts and instructions. The potential of a dire situation had some folks changing their plans.
"We left a day early. We were worried about staying later," said one man.