JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – 10-minute
John McGraw and his family braved the incredibly busy Walmart to stock up ahead of the storm.
“We just had to grab a couple items. So it was a madhouse in there, as to be expected,” McGraw said. “But you know, we were in and out pretty quick, just a few things.”
Fueling up your car and fueling up your gas cans are also essentials ahead of a major storm. Tons of people made the trip to the gas station at BJ’s wholesale to top off their tanks. For Craig Herr, it was worth the 10-minute wait to fill up all of his gas cans.
“Why pay $3.19, when you can pay $2.86, so, yes, it was worth the drive coming down here in that deal,” Herr said.
Many people had the same idea to get their last-minute items ahead of Helene, including Christina Erford. She noticed that Walmart was busier than normal for a Wednesday night.
“I was surprised. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be. Last year around the same time, it was like a total disaster, and I was very upset with myself that I didn’t come till so late, but I got everything that I needed,” Erford explained.
Herr says he’s not just prepared with fuel, he also has multiple cases of water.
“I’ve got three, three 40-bottle cases and then I’ve got one 224, so you know, I just knew hurricane season was coming,” said Herr. “So this time around, I wasn’t gonna wait till the last minute.”
We checked inside Walmart at around 8 pm Wednesday and found that plenty of water was still in stock. Erford says that’s not the only thing she felt had a good amount of stock.
“They’re doing a really good job of keeping everything stocked up pretty good,” she said. “They had plenty of water inside and, like, sandwich meat and that kind of stuff too.”
But McGraw noticed some shelves were starting to look depleted.
“If there are things you have to get, I would definitely come get them,” he said. “But I also, I mean, I’m not really expecting the storm to be that bad around here.”