It was no ordinary Tuesday at Costco following the Labor Day weekend. At 10 a.m., the store raised its entry door and 400 customers flooded in.

An employee manned the entrance and rattled off sold out items. Within an hour, the buy-in-bulk retailer was out of bottled water, generators and D batteries. Disappointed customers either went inside to hunt for leftovers or turned around.

Locals, still shell-shocked from Hurricane Hermine's hammering on Tallahassee last year, are not taking chances this time around despite the uncertainty of Hurricane Irma's path. The Category 5 storm is lurking in the Caribbean and could wash across Florida's shores.

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Jason Resident, who lives five miles from the Georgia border on Bannerman Road, wanted water but came too late. He hoped to have better luck at Walmart in the same Fallschase Village Shopping Center. If not there, he’d scout Sam’s Club, Publix or head to Thomasville or Quincy if necessary.

He was shocked by the acute shortages. Resident said he saw “a ton of water” on Sunday when he came to Costco. He got some then but wanted to stock up more. He feels prepared. Yeti containers filled. Ice on hand.

“We have food if we have to stay. We have food if we have to leave,” he said.

Brittany Peters unloaded a hefty haul of hurricane basics after strapping her two-year-old son into his car seat. Thanks to a combination of the morning heat and the mayhem inside, beads of sweat formed on her nose and brow.

Unbelievably long lines and $300 later, Peters snagged five cases of water, candles, a lantern, juice, bread and a few other necessities. Surprisingly, she'd only been in the store for 45 minutes. She eyed the stream of customers converging on the entrance knowing what they’d encounter inside.

She was glad to be on the outside looking in.

“It’s insanity. It’s Black Friday on steroids,” Peters said, lugging cases of bottled water into her trunk. “It’s bad. It’s bad.”

She's convinced people are still thinking of the chaos caused by Hermine, along with Hurricane Harvey's destruction in Texas. Hermine hammered Tallahassee last year, toppling trees and creating widespread outages. Some underestimated Hermine’s blow until they were caught in the storm, she said.

Not this time.

“We weren’t really prepared for the last one. We were all like, ‘Yeah, whatever,'” Peters said. “And this one is much bigger and much scarier so I think it’s just throwing people off.”

Irma is predicted to pack powerful winds as it blankets the Caribbean. Forecasters say Irma could hit the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico by Wednesday and affect parts of Florida, Georgia and/or the Carolinas by next week, according to USA Today.

Gas prices rocketed nationwide after Harvey — the first major event in this year's hurricane season — made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane and dumped more than 50 inches of rain on Houston and Southeast Texas.

Renee Jouvenas, a frequent Costco customer, came in after she served her dog the last bit of food Tuesday morning and was shocked by the hurricane frenzy all around her.

Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency, she thought, and threw her hands in the air and flung her head back in frustration and awe.

“We’ve all just experienced, indirectly by a long shot, the Harvey situation, which is God awful,” said the retired nurse. “God awful.”

“This is panic. Sheer panic. That’s what this is,” she said.

She didn’t understand why people couldn’t have filled their bathtubs with tap water, which could be used for drinking and cooking if necessary. When a storm strikes, she said lives cautiously as it comes through.

“Worse case scenario, I’ve got bottled water from my daughter’s wedding 10 years ago out in the shed," Jouvenas said.

All over Tallahassee, there were reports of shortages and waning supplies at grocery and convenience stores.

An associate at the Publix on Ocala Road stood in the aisle passing out cases of water. Residents raided shelves for bottled water and by the afternoon, shelves were nearly bare.

In Tallahassee, long gas lines snaked through the parking lot at Costco and gas stations throughout Leon County.

James Miller, a spokesman for the Florida Retail Federation, which represents thousands of retailers, said residents don't need to start filling up at this point. Miller said Florida has a week's worth of gas reserves at all time. The rush for gas could trigger temporary shortages.

"There may be sporadic (gas) outages in Tallahassee because of the panic,” Miller said. "We have adequate supplies in the Big Bend region."

Contact TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com or follow @TaMarynWaters on Twitter.