Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Anyone NOT see this coming?:

Storm sets off frantic rush for supplies across East Coast

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Good luck buying lanterns, generators, propane, or – if you are really unprepared – rain boots and batteries in areas in the path of Hurricane Sandy as it bears down on the U.S. East Coast.

The approach of the gigantic storm, which is expected to come ashore on Monday night set off a weekend scramble for supplies from Virginia to New England, causing long lines at gas stations, bare shelves at hardware and home-supply shops, and a run on bread, bottled water and canned foods.

“It’s been crazy. We’re the only one open who still has gas,” said Karen Tripodi, a customer service representative at Cumberland Farms, a gas station and market in Newington, Connecticut. “They’re coming in for propane, ice, water, milk and cigarettes.”

My wife, a former resident of North Carolina, pointed out that when hurricanes would approach people would rush out for bread, milk and eggs. “It’s like they all suddenly want French toast!”, she observed.

As Ryan over at TSLRF pointed out regarding the ideal level of preparedness , “Somewhere between getting ready for a short term natural disaster and Red Dawn is about the right place.”

Our own level of preparedness has been steadily marching along. So much so, in fact, that a trip to CostCo was called for yesterday for yet another set of steel wire shelving. We have, for now, plenty of shelf space for more stuff. Do we need more stuff? Eh…some yes, some no. I took advantage of the opportunity to re-inventory things. 95% of the spreadsheet was accurate…there were a few items that were off by one or two. I also switched at least a half-dozen items from DNI (Do Not Inventory) to ‘inventory item’ status. DNI’s are things that we bought a bunch of but don’t plan on buying more of or replacing. For example, the missus finds a product she likes, and buys a case of it….halfway through the case she discovers a better product. The remains of that case go into storage as a DNI and the new product she likes becomes an inventory item. Hey, it works for us.

I have at least one friend whose house is, I believe, sitting right in the muzzle of Hurricane Sandy and Im interested to find out how he fares. Anyone from the east coast with interesting stories, feel free to tell ‘em in comments.

ETA: Gangs Plan Hurricane Looting Spree Via Twitter

It appears Rule #870 may be in effect