Don't know why. The freezer still worked, from what I can tell. Perhaps a shortage of frozen food delivery trucks?
There are food items brought in from overseas in refrigerated containers. The local HEB yesterday, and the Wal-Mart this morning both had pasta shelves that were pretty barren. Wal-Mart's has been like this for going on three weeks now in the Bryan/College Station area of TX.
If people actually want some inexpensive past, they should check out the area of Wal-mart with the Hispanic products; you can get 7oz bags of pasts from 28 to 48 cents. It's a little starchy, but just cook in more water, rinse off with hot tap water, and then pour a small pot of boil water over it. And don't overcook it.