Hurricane Shopping in NYC: And Then There Were But Keychain Flashlights Left

A weird week in New York City is only getting weirder. On Tuesday, for the first time since 1884, earthquake tremors were felt in the Big Apple; which, not surprisingly, came with no warning from earthquake prognosticators. Now, NYC is bracing for its first hurricane since 1985. (Any readers game for trying to calculate the odds of NYC getting hit by an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week, I’d love to see your estimates.) As I write, I’m watching out my window as people in the building across the street tape their windows. Which reminds me, I need duct tape!

Now that the MTA has announced that all NYC public transportation will be shut down beginning on noon Saturday, people are out in force doing some last-minute hurricane shopping. So we decided to venture out and do a little reporting on what’s left, and what’s not. I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and there are four drugstores, one  hardware store, and a RadioShack within a three block radius of my apartment. As of 2:30 this afternoon, there were no full-size flashlights left, a scant amount of duct tape available ($8 for 60 yards), and zero D or C batteries. At the hardware store, a scrum broke out among a few elderly ladies over a box of headlamps that were left. Yes, headlamps. The best we could do was a set of mini candles for $1.99, and a key chain flashlight for $9.99.
Things will surely get worse tomorrow, especially with Hurricane Irene drink specials popping up at bars around the city tonight. People are bound to wake up in the morning hung over, and unprepared.

Assuming many of you live in the mid-Atlantic and are prepping for Hurricane Irene, we’d love to hear your stories of Hurricane economics at play.