Disaster Suckage

[Food Lady]

So I'm watching Deep Impact for the umpteenth time (one of my faves) and it just occurred to think of those few days before Martial Law is instituted from a customer-service point of view. Can you imagine? People know they need supplies. Everyone is at the grocery, if it's even open. I can just see the EW behavior, the fistfights, the looting, and the old ladies who just have to use up coupons even if the world is ending. I don't think I'd be coming to work. Oh, the humanity!

[Caffienated_Caramel]

I don't believe I've seen Deep Impact. But I can imagine people being idiots in a grocery store during a Tornado in "Day after Tomorrow"

[Captain Trips]

Seems to me you can get a pretty good idea by looking at New Orleans just after Katrina!

[ralerin]

Or even if there's a snow storm coming, no matter if it's 1/8 an inch or 10 feet...

[mdatca]

I have always thought who the hell would go to work to serve the fools? Whenever I see a movie or a news report of the masses stocking up. If there was a huge disaster pending I would not prioritize my job at the shop and save. If I had just survived a huge disaster I would not be thinking oh good now I can go to work.

[BaristaTrav]

So I'm watching Deep Impact for the umpteenth time (one of my faves) and it just occurred to think of those few days before Martial Law is instituted from a customer-service point of view. Can you imagine? People know they need supplies. Everyone is at the grocery, if it's even open. I can just see the EW behavior, the fistfights, the looting, and the old ladies who just have to use up coupons even if the world is ending. I don't think I'd be coming to work. Oh, the humanity!

A killer asteroid and martial law isn't necessary. Check out any Wal-Mart in a major city around Christmas Eve or a Home Depot in South FL when people think a hurricane is coming. It's basically the scenario you're describing.

[EricKei]

Seems to me you can get a pretty good idea by looking at New Orleans just after Katrina!

Well, yeah, but more like "before" ^_^ They didn't let anybody but military and emergency workers in for the first 2 or 3 weeks. Stores did tend to order literal truckloads of water in particular as soon as the storm started heading into the gulf. Pallets and pallets' worth, but naturally, there was simply no way to keep up when people were buying a dozen bottles or more each...

Had supply shortages for awhile afterwards, tho --- apparently the FIRST place to open out here was Lowe's (building supplies) and the Burger King in front of it. The latter had only plain burgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sammiches, and cans of Coke for a while, that was it, nothing else. Naturally, they did amazing business. No clue where they got the supplies from.

In all fairness, tho, the military did a bang-up job having supply stations in cities where evacuees were known to congrgate...Drive up, wait in line for a reasonable amount of time, they fill yer trunk with 2 or 3 cases of water, MRE's (mm. hardtack. nummy), and gigantic packages of diapers (for those in need) and other neccessities...The sad thing was, there were people getting arrested for getting goodies with a baby in the car, and then passing the baby to another car and then another...all so they could SELL the diapers on the burgeoning black market to people who were just that desperate, or who, for whatever reason, could not go get the freebies themselves...I saw one such arrest in Picayune, MS, at that time, as it happened.

[Hobbs]

EricKei, were you part of the evacuees or something? Just curious mind you.

Also, MRE's don't have hardtack in them. In fact, I'm pretty sure we stopped using that near WWI, but don't quote me on that. The newest generation of MRE's are very good, though they stop you up like nothing.