Yeah... <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> I hope Stevie Ray Vaughan's soul shines on this festival and on all of Texas these days...

Houston survived Alicia (I know because I was there without power for 10 days) and they'll survive Rita too. I'm a little further inland these days so not too much to worry about here. We are expecting heavy wind and rain and tornadic activity but that's just a walk in the park for us (this is tornado alley after all). I will say one thing. This is the first time ever that I have seen a run on batteries and bottle water this far inland (Dallas/Fort Worth Area). I think our biggest fear around here right now is $4/gallon gas afterwards. I am happy to annouce that I need absolutely nothing. I have gone to the store to buy nothing. Water, food, batteries, tools... we are well stocked on all of those plus everything else we could possibley need short of a tornado shelter (i miss the one we had at my last house). We are prepared for flooding, tornados, power outages, whatever may come. I have ETS to thank for that. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Good luck to you, Blacktop, and to Blane and Blast as well. My sister -- the one living in Galveston -- has of course evacuated ... with tides predicted about 19-24 feet above normal at the height of the hurricane, I think she's assuming that her home will be toast even though -- like most houses there -- the actual occupied space starts 1 story up from ground level. Fortunately, she's got a close friend in Dallas....

I went out for a few things for a recipe last night, about 10 pm -- and the water was gone. There were folks trying to buy palletts of bottled water. I don't know if it was for export, or because they were freaked.

I wish I could understand this urgency of buying bottled water. As far as I know, the city's normal water sources aren't disrupted (yet). Are they buying bottled water just for the containers? If containers are available then it's simplest to just fill them from the kitchen sink or garden hose.

"I wish I could understand this urgency of buying bottled water."

I think bottled water is pretty much a way of life in Houston since the tap water tastes pretty bad.

Houston's not had a boil water order in several years, but with a category 5 storm it wouldn't be too hard to imagine our water supply compromised since most of the Houston area's water supply is surface water. We can't do well water any more due to subsidence issues. Suck the water out of the ground and your land sinks. Kinda like N'awlins.

Manufactured bottled water is a known quantity - you don't have to wonder about whether you need to boil it or not. It is easy to store so you just stash it and forget it. People will still fill their bathtubs and every other available container with tap water for hygiene and toilet flushing purposes.

I guess everyone just expects that there will be an extended interruption in our water supply.

I dunno. I've noticed that myself down here. There's another thread about how it's psychologically healthy to prepare. I wonder if the water buying is sort of like that. They know they should do something, and buying water is an easy way to do something. They'll use it anyway, they may even drink it already, and it's cheap and easy to aquire.

Everytime I see it, I keep thinking of the "King of the Hill" episode where Hank runs in to a Mega-Lo-Mart to buy a fuel filter during a storm. Everyone is panic buying. Someone sees Hank grab 12 fuel filters ('cause you can't buy just one). "What's a fuel filter????" "I don't know! But I need one too! Hey! He's buying all the fuel filters!!". <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I think anti gouging laws are dumb for just this reason. If the store owner was allowed to raise the price of water according to demand, water wouldn't run out so quick. Yes, it'd be a lot more expensive, but if you really, really needed it, it'd be available. Not hoarded in someone's garage.

There is the ultimate philosphical / meta-economics / anthropological question. Let's see: if we price it out of the range of the people that really need it now, then we insure a supply for those that afford it more later? Or, those that can afford it now don't really need it, so if we price it high enough they won't do a 'luxury buy' now, and this is better, because the people that can't afford the luxury buy will be forced to pay whatever the market will bear later? Or, supply, demand, and market forces will ultimately make it all come out right for the masses, because survival of the economically fittest wins out? Makes my brain tired.

Why not just level the price, and after an emergency has been declaired, limit the quantity of the buy to preserve stock? There is something wrong with a nieghborhood grocery store selling a pallett of water to an ordinary joe with no declaired purpose under these conditions. Yeah, I know, it imposes a burden upon the poor, pitiful, put upon, retailer, but if you can limit scalping, why can't you limit last minute hording?

BTW: the store in question said they did not have the manpower to rollout a pallett of water for him, and he would have to move it himself.

I'd argue that lifting price controls is rationing. And it frees the merchant from having to try to keep track of who bought how much and when.

Long term, rationing might be the way to go. In the short term (like, the S just HTF), basic economics (supply and demand) have a better shot at making goods and services available fairly.

I hate to say it, but the poor are going to get dumped on either way. At least with economic rationing (allowing the price to respond to demand), they have a better chance of getting a bag of ice or a gallon of gas if they really need it.

We agree that the poor get screwed. Threshold question: do we as a society, or administration, even try to do anything to prevent or control it?