Last-minute shoppers buy cups, icepacks ahead of hurricane

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – One problem with stocking up ahead of a hurricane is you never know exactly what you’ll need. Will the storm take out your power, your water — and for how long?

“It’s a little scary only because the meteorologists can’t really predict exactly what’s going to happen,” Natalie Elizur, 25, said while joining lines of shoppers making last-minute purchases at a grocery store in Fort Lauderdale ahead of Hurricane Matthew. “They can only track the storm, but they can’t really predict exactly what’s going to happen.”

Elizur, who said she already had stocked up on water, was now buying cups, plates, icepacks, food and a flashlight.

“A lot of styrofoam cups and plates so we have things to eat — because we’re probably not going to be able to wash dishes without water. Ice packs to keep things cool — we’re probably not going to have electricity, for a couple days — or we don’t really know how long,” she said.

Her choices were somewhat limited, because the many shoppers before her already had left some of the shelves bare.