I've now been through three catastrophes in three years.
August 2017 - Hurricane Harvey hits Houston. Rumors start flowing in Austin that the refineries would be offline for weeks-months. Texas Railroad Commission (in charge of oil industry, don't ask, it's Texas) insists there is no supply shortage. Everybody starts hoarding gas. One guy in my neighborhood was recorded filling a plastic garbage can with gas in the back of his truck. The results - the city had no gas for three days. But there is only so much gas you can put in your car, and within three days the supply was back to normal again.
October 2018 - Record rainfall causes muddy run-off to flood into the city's reservoir, overwhelming the water utility's ability to supply fresh water (learned the word "turbidity" during that "crisis"). Boil water notice sounded by city as a precaution, though no microbes were ever found in water tests. The gas hoarders from 14 months before raid every retailer in a four-county area for bottled water. You couldn't find a drop anywhere. Schools and governmental agencies had to truck in water from far away to provide water to schools, the elderly, and other at-risk groups. I just boiled it on the stove, which was no big deal. Within three days there were pallets of bottled water in the aisles of every store in the city, most of which went unsold. We picked up four cases at fire-sale prices for the next emergency.
March 2020 - a flu-like virus with low transmission and mortality rates sweeps over from China. Dubbed the "Covfefe Virus," hysterical soccer moms start looting stores of toilet paper, of all things. You'd think Advil and other medicinal remedies would be the target, but for some reason those minivan moms really, REALLY have to take huge dumps when things get dicey. News footage of miles-long lines of panic buying at Costco and elsewhere leads to a nation-wide run on the stores. There is literally no supply shortage of any consumer products in this country right now, but like I said, those mamma bears have to squat and take massive dumps. Most likely, this looting behavior will pass in a few days. How many 48 packs of Costco toilet paper can one mom buy before dad finally puts his foot down?
This is a good reminder of two equally-important life lessons: 1) You should ALREADY have a supply of toilet paper, water, medicine, etc. in your house for emergencies, weather-related, man-made, or any other kind; and 2) Don't feed the hysteria. When the looting begins, I know the first thing you're thinking is "if I don't rush out and get toilet paper, I may never see toilet paper again." But it's not true. In a few days it will be back on shelves, and the craziness will end. Don't throw fuel on the fire by panic buying along with the hysterics. And if I'm wrong, you can always borrow some TP from me. I have 4800 rolls.
