Cars and trucks were lined up five deep at the pumps at the Hawaii Kai Chevron, which is in the tsunami inundation zone Saturday.

Rich Reilly was trying to fill up his pickup truck as fast as possible so he could get to his beach lot house in Waimanalo to grab belongings and important papers.

“I’m a sailor, so I respect Mother Nature – and I challenge her as a sailor – but I don’t want to challenge her this time,” said the 47-year-old Reilly, a general contractor. “I totally respect this.”  

Stephanie Dobson, who lives near the ocean in nearby Kuliouou, was relatively calm even though her home is at sea level.

“I pulled the portable generators out form under the house and put them up on a rock wall which is about seven feet high,” said Dobson, 37. “I’m just securing property and whatever happens, happens.”

Lanikai resident Christine Crosby lives on high ground but has friends at sea level and she wanted to get her gas so she could get home and make sure they were safe. Hawaii has had tsunami threats that resulted in nothing but that didn’t matter to her.

“I grew up here and I have neighbors who survived two tsunamis and they said to not go near the ocean,” said Crosby, 45. “I take it pretty seriously.”

But Bradley Leon-Yep, a 20-year-old carpenter who lives on Kamehame Ridge, was annoyed that so many people showed up to get gas. He was there because his tank was almost empty and not because he feared a tsunami might create gas shortages.

“Where are you going to drive to?” he said. “If a tsunami hits, you’re going to stay home. I don’t understand why people have to fill their tanks up with gas.”