I have never lived in "hurricane country." Unless you have a generator that automatically starts when main power is lost - and even this is not infallible - this doesn't make sense. These foods will quickly spoil without refrigeration in the still warm temperatures. So help me to understand why people stock up on these things when the power may be out for days or weeks. It seems to me that canned foods, MREs and other non-perishables would be better things to have.

I buy them (eggs) because I eat a lot of them. Usually the refrigerator/freezer will keep food good for another day or so if you're disciplined. I have a large cooler that I fill with ice for food storage, and then another cooler for drinks. The food cooler will go a few days before the food goes bad.

I think the answer to your question may also be that people are stupid. Though there were eggs aplenty at the market yesterday, bread and peanut butter however...

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I think the answer to your question may also be that people are stupid.

Well, you know what they say, the simplest answer is usually the best one.

Your food stash would only do any good if you stay in the house during the storm, would it not? If you evacuate, or come back to find your house blown down or flooded, what good is it?

First, I dont stock up on those things, but, your freezer will stay cold a long time (few days or more) without power and those are the first items I would eat.

I also pack my freezer with bottle water, they freeze, act like ice but without the melting issues, and I have cold water for over a week. They will keep your freezer cold enough to eat most perishables.

If i stay at home i will stock up on enough fresh food like eggs, milk, fruits and vegetables. Just because there is a storm doesn’t mean I can't eat well. I have a generator that I will fire up once the storm passes as needed and I will have a few coolers with ice as well.

If I evacuate I will take the coolers with me and stock up on fresh foods right before I return. Even with power it may be a few days before the stores are operating normally.

It depends on your situation and level of preparation. We lost power for 3 weeks after Ivan. Two freezers and a fridge and a portable generator that struggled to keep up. Things stayed cold for a week but eventually lost the battle. I can tell you that the portable generators you buy in home improvement stores are better than nothing, but are little more than wishful thinking. Thank God for the National Guard and FEMA that provided ice and water to rural areas.

I led a relief convoy to Homestead after Andrew in 1992. We arrived 24 hours after the storm passed and everywhere we went people asked for ice. It was the most valued commodity next to gasoline. Unfortunately there was a lot of opportunistic price gouging going on especially for ice.

Since Ivan we installed a 40kw diesel generator and enough fuel storage to run for 2 weeks, that powers all our buildings during an outage. I know that sounds like overkill but live in Florida for 3 weeks with no power or AC for and you will see the logic.

Many new homes in Florida now come with a whole house generator that will provide power for at least a few days. I wouldn't be surprised to see generators become a requirement in the building codes at some point.

Actually, eggs don't need refrigeration. They are good for around 30 days unrefrigerated for raw farm eggs. Once they are "processed" for stores, maybe less, but will still last a few weeks.

Your premise is wrong. Who stocks up on milk and eggs? In the twenty years I've been here, I've never seen a grocery store run out of milk and eggs before a storm. Water, bread, propane and gasoline are what people stock up on.

If we lost power, I can run my generator once every hour to keep my fridge going. If I really had to, the 18cuft fridge in my RV runs on propane and a small bit of electricity. For propane, I have 2 30lb tanks and 3 20lb tanks. The RV also has a generator and 2 40 gallon fuel tanks.

If we evacuate, the RV has us covered.

In Punta Gorda after Charely, ice was readily available. So was water and food.

As far as canned good, we have enough last us quite a while.

What do I know though. I'm just a stupid Florida Man with all my natural teeth.

In advance of a storm we would not buy perishable refrigerated items. Fruit and vegetables are not in this category. We would eat out of the fridge before the storm, then after the storm we would eat out of the freezer.

Keeping bottles and jugs of water frozen is a good practice.

In my experience the largest monetary loss was refrigerated items that aren't meals, condiments sauces etc. Look in your fridge door and throw all that stuff out.

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Your premise is wrong. Who stocks up on milk and eggs?

I have read or heard plenty of apocryphal stories, including some here, where people do exactly that, unless all of them are exaggerations or jokes. This is why I ask, because it's a lazy Saturday morning and I have nothing better to do to learn.

Near where I live it is beer,chips and pop tarts .

I grew up in New Jersey.
In the winters in New Jersey it was bread and milk before a snow storm. If you had an unheated garage it was cold enough to keep food cold.
In Florida we buy enough perishable food to last up to when we might lose power then what might be left it goes into a cooler with ice.
Before hurricane season starts I buy jars of peanut butter,salteen type crackers,fruit fiber bars pop tarts canned chicken, cases of water and canned fruits. We put them away and do not use them unless we need them for a storm. If a storm is coming I freeze a case of water and start bagging my own ice.
If we do not have a storm during the season we just use them as regular food and buy replacements before next season.

Pop-Tarts and Spam.

The new milk and eggs.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day?
People love french toast in a hurricane?
I've always wondered the same...

UMMM, ever been camping? Its called a cooler. Some can last for days properly stocked.

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Originally posted by egregore:

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Your premise is wrong. Who stocks up on milk and eggs?

I have read or heard plenty of apocryphal stories, including some here, where people do exactly that, unless all of them are exaggerations or jokes. This is why I ask, because it's a lazy Saturday morning and I have nothing better to do to learn.

I have to agree with Egregore. I’ve been through 3 hurricanes (Rita, Ike, and Harvey) and grocery stores are stripped almost bare. The exception is the refrigerated and frozen vegan/vegetarian sections are well stocked.

The most shocking thing to me during Rita was the run on cat litter. I never would’ve guessed that one in a million years.

Here is a story that fits Egregore’s premise. Rita happened while I was moving to Houston and my household goods had not even arrived yet so I was completely unprepared and could buy nothing at the bare stores. I am one of the hundreds of thousands who evacuated for Rita and was stuck on the highway moving 0.8 mph. It was so horrible that I vowed that I would never evacuate again. By June 1 (start of the next hurricane season), I had built up my hurricane supplies but the only thing that I lacked was a generator. Ike comes rolling into town and I get wind that Home Depot just received a truckload of generators so I went there and purchased a generator, 4 gas cans, and more extension cords. After like passes, I rolled my generator in the backyard and chain it to a tree. I had barely had it fired up for three minutes when my neighbor (I was friends with him but we’re polar opposites) pops his head over the fence and asked if he can hook up to my generator. The reason is that he went to whole foods and purchased $150 worth of organic gourmet cheese. Even worse, the guy did not even own an extension cord longer than 10 feet. In other words, there are plenty of middle-class or Upper middle class people who have the financial ability to be prepared but are completely unprepared for a hurricane and even buy mind boggling stupid things instead of being prepared for a long outage.

Generally you don't stock up on those items. But yes, eggs can go unrefrigerated for a few weeks. Some people may buy milk if they drink a lot and if the storm comes and they lose it, it's cheap enough that they throw it out or they move it to a cooler. It also comes to prep. The last Hurricane, I didn't have a generator and my refrigerator was good from Friday night at 10pm when I lost power to Monday morning at noon when I borrowed my neighbors generator for 4 hours, it was 43F when I plugged it in. However, what I do is stock 1 cooler with drinks and ice in it for everyone to grab drinks from, and another cooler with a couple of planned meals that are already cooked (and some that aren't) and ice...….and leave the refrigerator closed as much as possible. I also kept a couple of coolers filled to the brim with ice so if it went longer, I'd start moving stuff to those. For Milk you can buy the boxed milk and it doesn't need to be refrigerated and that's what a lot of people do. I have a freezer full of food, steak, chicken breasts, etc. Also have a gas grill with side burner and several full propane cylinders as well as a charcoal grill......and lots of canned food that I normally eat.....such as tuna.

I bought a generator that's large enough to run the refrigerator or a hot plate since Irma. Just a 1400/2000 watt, I thought about something larger like 3500 watt that could run a fridge and hot plate, but then you get into the gas issue. I have 30 gallons of gas......and would run it 4-6 hours twice a day...….just to keep the refrigerator cold or to use a hot plate if there's a lot of rain and can't use the grill. I have a house that I can stay at indefinitely that has a whole house generator and hooked to Natural gas (indefinite supply), but need to get by for 4 or possibly 5 days until the streets are cleared enough for me to get there. After Wilma, we had no power for 21 days and after about 3 days the city was driving around the neighborhoods and giving away ice. Generally all of the neighbors clear the streets near their house so cars can get by (if they can, sometimes the trees are too large for your typical homeowners saw).

I own a Yacht Management business and have other peoples yachts and a house that I manage to get prepared if a storm is coming. SO I keep my house prepared at all times. I keep a minimum of 5 (40 packs) of water, at least 2 propane bottles full, and plenty of food etc. The only thing I didn't keep already stocked, was gas, and I think I'm going to start doing that, because getting it this time was a huge inconvenience. My buddy keeps his gas cans full during hurricane season and once a month just dumps them into his cars fuel tank and refills them so he doesn't have to worry about it going bad or anything.


Honestly, you can be pretty damn well stocked with stuff you normally eat or use anyways for about $200. I know of a lot of people that $200 is a drop in the bucket for, that aren't prepared at all until the last minute.

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Originally posted by jcsabolt2:
Actually, eggs don't need refrigeration. They are good for around 30 days unrefrigerated for raw farm eggs. Once they are "processed" for stores, maybe less, but will still last a few weeks.

Yes. I was quite surprised to see most stores in France didn’t even refrigerate them. If nobody is stocking up it might be a wise purchase

I’ve been through two hurricanes and numerous tropical storms. I have a portable generator that runs my fridge, freezer, portable ac for one room at a light or two. I have enough freeze dried supplies for at least a month but also keep canned food and other fresh food. I get my eggs straight from a friend that raises chickens so I don’t need to keep them cool. Water and gas are my biggest commodities but I do keep four ice chests with ice in case I run out of gas. Cleaning supplies are high on my list too, bleach, Clorox wipes, heavy duty trash bags etc. Out of sheer boredom and curiosity I’ve waited in lines for an hour or more to get what I could when the neighborhood store opened after a storm. Fresh foods go quickly but you can also tell who wasn’t prepared. Many people use ice chests exclusively when ice is available and I think most don’t really prepare properly.

I don’t rely on the govt to bail me out but between coworkers and friends I have a network to help out and get help. I’ve got guys who will drop whatever they are doing and lend a hand if needed and I’d do the same for them. Good friends and neighbors are the best thing to have. I’ve helped tear out water damage in houses, moved water logged belongings to the curb for track pickup, helped neighbors cut and remove trees, rescued friends who were trapped outside flooded areas. I’ve seen the best of people come out during hurricanes, race, sexual preference, religion meant nothing and most people helped whom ever needed it. People came from Louisiana to help us (The Cajun Navy) in Texas and we did the same.

Farm eggs last weeks. Once refrigerated they can’t stay out long.

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I have to agree with Egregore. I’ve been through 3 hurricanes (Rita, Ike, and Harvey) and grocery stores are stripped almost bare. The exception is the refrigerated and frozen vegan/vegetarian sections are well stocked.

Maybe that's Texas thing. It could also be that I didn't see it during Charley, Jeanne, Frances, Ivan, Katrina, Wilma, Matthew, Irma, and now Dorian because I don't go to the store right before the storm hits. Practice makes perfect.

It's a beautiful, lazy Saturday morning. I'm going to jump in the pool and talk to my wife about taking the kids to Disney on Monday, but first I think I'll have a glass of milk.