Hurricane-style panic buying was the order of the day at gas stations, hardware stores and supermarkets across the Island as the fear of a prolonged blackout set hearts racing.

Police were called in to restore order at the Paget Service Station on Valley Road as scores of vehicles lined up to secure what commuters saw as dwindling supplies.

Car owners were queuing around the car park at St. Paul?s Church, becoming increasingly frustrated in the morning heat as motorcyclists forced to the front of lines.

And the fight was on to secure batteries and water at both hardware stores and supermarkets with fans, coolers, candles and propane cookers also disappearing out the doors of stores from east to west.

Some customers at Gorham?s were perfectly happy to shell out more than $2,000 apiece to secure a generator, with the limited supplies at the St. John?s Road store disappearing as soon as they were wheeled out by the under-pressure staff.

Although huge queues were forming in both hardware stores and supermarkets, particularly Lindo?s on Middle Road and Arnold?s on St. John?s Road, it was at the gas stations where the bulk buying required official supervision.

Reserve Police officers were posted at Terceira?s Shell Service Station on North Shore Road, with queues stretching back to Store Hill.

And there was no let up at the gas station in Flatts where similar scenes played out, again with rising tempers as commuters impatiently attempted to fill their vehicles.

?I don?t know why people are bothering,? said the stressed-looking cashier in Flatts as he dealt with yet another customer attempting to fill both a truck and canisters.

?There is no way we are going to run out, there is plenty to go round. But the people keep coming so we keep serving them.

?We have alerted the bosses at Shell and they are going to make sure we don?t run low.

?The only way we are going to run out is if everyone on the Island decides they have to fill up today.? But, despite no warnings of fuel shortages, all the drivers who put up with the ever-increasing queues were adamant they were doing the right thing.

?I ain?t taking no risks,? said one Renault driver at the Paget Service Station, after screaming at ?you crazy byes? on scooters.

?I am filling this baby up and then I?m going to get bags of ice.

?Next stop the supermarket next door for some cool ones and we are going to ride this craziness out in style.?

Although the drivers were convinced that the desperation for petrol was the right decision, those roped into helping them achieve their goal were not.

?These guys are just idiots,? said one tired-looking and sweaty Police officer, whose job it was to divert traffic to stop the queues disrupting Bermuda?s arterial roads.

?I don?t know why they are going crazy for gas when there is no way it is going to run out.

?They are blocking roads and making things messy for everyone when there is no need.?

No Police were required, however, at the supermarkets or hardware stores as customers panic-bought without actually panicking.

Water, of course, was the thing on most people?s mind, with most of the supermarkets keeping a member of staff on permanent aqua detail to ensure the shelves were stocked, although there was little they could do to stop some of the more eager shoppers from loading up enough to keep them wet for a month.

Batteries, often being scooped up two or three packets at a time, were another commodity high on the priority list although some of the more relaxed members of the community had their minds on other things ? one female shopper at the Heron Bay Marketplace had her basket filled with little more than candles and beer.

No supermarkets ever actually ran out of water as the demand calmed throughout the day, although some sold out of coolers.

Another bigger seller than usual, according to butchers at most of the major supermarkets, was meat, particularly steaks, as impromptu barbeques were arranged for those keen to make the most of the day off work.

The fried chicken in the A1 on Valley Road, Paget, was also hot stuff as customer after customer loaded their bikes with buckets of the easy-to-eat foods.

At Masters on Dundonald Street, controller Charles Hall said people were mainly purchasing generators and lamps.

?Our computers are down, so no communications and no charge accounts so we are doing it all on paper,? he said as the queues mounted.

?So, it is cash or cheque only and we are writing all the sales manually.

Masters were only allowing a few customers into the shop at a time and staff were escorting them to items.

?We are using torches and we are allowing up to ten people in at a time,? he said.

?We should still have plenty of torches, propane, stoves, batteries, and we get them from BGA (Bermuda General Agency), so there will be plenty.?

As the day wore on, the realisation that the long-haul wasn?t to be that long, meant the supermarket raids lessened, although the rowdy gas queues were still in need of Police containment well into the afternoon.