Intellegent people buy food that can be cooked with water like rice and beans. After all, hurricanes and floods produce water. A 25 pound bag of rice and beans will carry you through a long period of time and can be easily stored BEFORE the necessity to use it.
I watch with amazement each time a hurricane approaches out coastline as the "store panic" starts. Not only the grocery stores but at the lumber yards too.
We do something most don't. At the begining of hurricane season we simply buy the "staples" such as beans and rice and store them. Wood for the windows was cut, numbered and stored many years ago...no panic run to the lumber yard or grocery store each time. Have you ever wondered just where all of that wood goes after the hurricane threat each year and why they have to buy it again each time they are threatened?
I was always taught that there is no such thing as an emergency or accident. Both are due to lack of planning or attention, with very few and rare exceptions.
I keep 300# of rice and beans in the garage for things like this and I am north of Dallas. Cost to store? Maybe 100-150 bucks. Keeping it on a pallet means that in 5gal buckets with deoxygenators means that it will be there for several years.
I think of it as famine insurance.