Alabama/Atlanta Snowpocalypse: When meteorology goes terribly wrong

Why do people clear out the grocery store? Doesn't the normal househould have enough food for a couple of days?

 

There's always some item you're low on that is considered essential to daily life -- coffee, orange juice, gin, etc. Also, people stock up on batteries, ice melt and other winter storm supplies. Who has ice melt on hand in Atlanta?

 

You're wrong, trust me.

We got 2-3 inches last month, and the most populous county in Virginia (Fairfax) closed schools for three days, and had two more delayed openings.

About three years ago, we got 8 inches and the region was paralyzed exactly the way Atlanta was last month.

 

The wife bought the last box of firewood in our Kroger this morning, just in case.

 

There's also the question of how quickly your local grocer is going to get its stock replenished. When DFW had that ice storm in December, our local Kroger (especially the meat section) was all but bare for two or three days. That's why we exercise the "get while gettin's good" heuristic with respect to beer, wine, milk*, toilet paper, ground beef and coffee/coffee creamer.

*Did you know that a household with a 17-year-old boy goes through a gallon of milk a day?

 

. . . and a 12-pack.

 

As well as the idea that if everyone's home, rather than eating at school/work/out, the food gets decimated pretty quickly.

 

And if the power goes out, you're limited to what you can prepare. Thus bread goes quick as people plan for sandwiches. Peanut butter usually goes too.

 

I've never even heard of "ice melt."

 

It's either rock salt or chemical compounds road crews use. It's sold in bags at most New England supermarkets and all hardware stores.
PS: If you have a gas stove and are worried about power loss, buy a box of kitchen matches and light the burners manually. You can cook a lot on the stovetop.

 

I grew up in Atlanta and now live in Texas and I've never seen that in a store. Now, I haven't been looking for it so I might have overlooked it, but I have never seen it.

 

Not even at hardware stores? The one nearest me sells it in 25 pound bags. I'm well into mine this year. The thing is, in New England, the ice won't melt by itself until Easter. In Atlanta, it'll be gone a day or so after it hits.