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As Floyd nears, gas and groceries selling as fast as plywood

people buy supplies
Coastal Florida residents stock up on supplies at home improvement stores

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Nature's Wrath
 

September 13, 1999
Web posted at: 10:06 p.m. EDT (0206 GMT)

MIAMI (CNN) -- Hurricane Floyd's approach has been good for retailers along the coast of Florida.

"Holy moley, we've been slammed all day," said Bill Pachico, manager of the Albertson's food store in Melbourne, which is in Brevard County north of Miami.

Last Monday, he sold $27,000 worth of groceries all day. As of early evening this Monday, he had sold $71,000. In an average week, four truckloads of supplies are enough to restock the store, he said. On Monday, the store had sold two truckloads of water alone and was awaiting delivery of a third.

Twenty to 30 people were lined up to get to each of the registers, though the customers' attitudes were "pretty good," he said.

At the Cash and Carry in Melbourne, business has more than doubled, said Jay Pelaez, a stock clerk training to be a manager. "There's customers in here I've never seen before."

Long lines of people loaded with supplies snaked from the store's seven registers, all of them open Monday night instead of the usual three. The store -- out of batteries, flashlights and lighter fluid -- will remain open until Tuesday at 9 a.m. EDT, when employees will be sent home.

"I would call this the busiest day I've ever worked," said Fred Lange, assistant store manager of The Home Depot in Palm Beach Gardens. "This is the largest crowd I've ever seen."

The store sold out its entire stock of plywood -- which he estimated was about 50 times what the store sells in a typical week -- and was rushing to get more in from northern Florida and Georgia.

Lines were so long customers had to wait two to three hours to get to the cashier, but "it's been very orderly," Lange said.

At the Sprint Gas Station in Melbourne, business was five to six times heavier than normal, said store manager Tom Abdalla. At times, the lines stretched into the street, and, as night fell, his station's tanks were nearly dry. "We've heard of some places that have run out of gas," he said.

"It's run me ragged on U-Hauls," said Walter Bryan of the Dog Gone Meat and Grocery on Merritt Island. Bryan normally rents two U-Hauls on any given Monday, but wound up renting eight trailers and five trucks by Monday night.

He is planning to be at work Tuesday and stay there "until the law runs me out. I'm not running yet."



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RELATED SITES:
National Hurricane Center
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