Approaching hurricane sparks runs in Hawaii on plywood, water and gasoline

REUTERS - With forecasts calling for Hurricane Lane to strike or brush past Hawaii on Friday (August 24), tens of thousands of people across the state were involved in the rituals of disaster preparation on Wednesday (August 22). Lane, wavering between Category 4 and Category 5 strength on the five-step Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, churned toward the U.S. Pacific island state with sustained winds of up to 155 miles per hour (250 kph) on Wednesday, as authorities urged residents to stock up on water, food and medicines. Across Hawaii, jittery residents lined up at hardware centers, gasoline stations and grocery stores. Many older residents recalled even greater devastation from the last Category 4 storm to pummel Hawaii, Hurricane Iniki, which made landfall on Kauai in September 1992, killing six people and leveling or damaging more than 14,000 dwellings.