Well although later than normal, winter has hit the Pacific Northwest. We usually get a little dusting of snow annually and occasionally get a decent amount. Last week we started getting our dusting on Monday then by Friday we were getting winter weather warnings. Life was pretty much business as usual, the snowstorm came in with a vengeance, all night Friday, all morning Saturday. Our town suddenly became crippled, airports closed, the mall closed, most restaurants closed, all local events were cancelled, people were told to stay off the roads, in fact many of the highways into town were closed due to accidents. The plows just stopped running because they were not getting anywhere. On Sunday we got a break in the weather, snow stopped, even had a little sun and blue sky, but another storm warning became active. At this point we needed a few groceries so off to the grocery store we went. This is where I became surprised. Saw posts where Seattle shelves were cleared from preppers, but didn’t really think that would happen here.
At first it was almost comical, no eggs, chip isle cleaned out, most meats raw and deli were gone, bacon gone (we don’t eat meat but found this interesting), we grabbed the last of the coffee creamer brand we use (new flavor for us as that is all there was), the dairy section you can see in the back where they stock and it was also empty, we grabbed the last loaf of the bread that was close to what we use, there were no potatoes or bananas among other vegetables, the soup isle had been hit hard as well. I saw people were dividing their groups to try and get the last of what they needed, because what was left on the shelves was clearing fast. When we got to the checkout we were not asked if we found everything we needed as we normally would have been, she knew better, however when my husband pointed out how much they were out of the clerk informed us that two of their stock trucks were unable to make it in the night before. This is when we started thinking more seriously about what was going on.
The shelves weren’t just cleaned out because of people panicking that they would get snowed in again, the store didn’t get their inventory as was expected. What is un-nerving to think about is that highway closures for half of one day plus a few additional shoppers would clean out a store (a large chain one at that) to that level in basically half of one day. Makes it scary to think of what would happen with a week or more highway closures. We were fortunate to be able to get the few things we needed, however learned a lesson from this as well. We are making a better plan to be able to sustain on what is on hand, we will be planning and purchasing more non perishable items that will carry us through longer if something more real happens and we cant get the “staples”. So I guess if I was to make a point with this, it would be to think about what you would need to survive if all roads into town were closed oh and also don’t forget how important truckers are to our survival.
