Green Country Residents Stock Up For Latest Winter Blast

Friday, January 12th 2007, 9:51 am

By: News On 6

Parking lots across Tulsa were filled with last minute shoppers on Friday even as the freezing rain began to fall. News on 6 reporter Heather Lewin says people were stocking up on gas, groceries and hardware supplies.

Hundreds of people braved the freezing rain Friday so they won't have to head out again in even harsher conditions. Inside most stores it was a waiting game, waiting for carts, waiting in line and waiting for the weather to get worse.

"I didn't expect it to be this bad so soon, but it's, it's all right," one shopper said.

"I'm here because of the weather, they say it's gonna get bad and I don't want to have to come out again," said one customer.

"Buying my groceries so I'm not without anything to munch on during the snow."

Some were stocking up on the essentials for a totally different reason.

"Getting ready for playoff football games," said one sports fan.

Just about every store in town is packed with shoppers grabbing the essential items for over the weekend. Lots of things that don't need to be cooked are a good idea, maybe some bread and lunchmeat, although you have to remember, if we lose power, you won't have refrigeration.

Another thing you'll be without if the electricity goes out, gasoline. The pumps will not work without electricity. Just in case there's an outage, a steady stream of cars could be seen at most stations, drivers wanting to be sure they've got a full tank.

"We had about 200 cans of deicer and it was gone by 10 o'clock," said Richard Womack at Best Hardware.

Area hardware stores were also swamped.

"Got a few scrapers left, but we won't have any by the end of the day," Womack said.

This locally owned shop had already gone through 7 pallets of ice melt by early Friday afternoon. Each load that came in from the warehouse was snatched up in minutes.

"There won't be anything left. Hopefully the store's still standing by the end of the day," said Womack.

As you can see many places are running out of key items if you're still looking to stock up, although at a certain point it's probably going to be a better idea just to stay home.