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While I agree with being prepared let me state that it’s a bit more involved than just getting in a car and driving 50m inland.

Firstly, most places are out of or almost out of gas. Friend of mine who DID prepare beforehand has been looking for gas because HIS work in western NJ is still open and his commute time and therefore gas consumption has doubled or tripled. It’s not really safe to store a whole lot of gas cans in an apartment.

They do, however, have food and know how to cook it and were NOT in an evac zone. They aren’t even in zone C, the ‘build an ark’ evac zone.

Most municipalities do NOT let you cook out or have gas grills or kerosene heaters in your apartment. Understandable from a fire hazard standpoint. Nobody wants to be a modern day Mrs. O’Leary. Ask Breezy Point how this works.

My friends family is eating a whole lotta PB&J sammiches, poptarts, dry cereal and crackers with canned cheese.

Secondly, most streets are either flooded (Hoboken, Jersey City, others) and impassable or impassable due to massive trees that fell. Combined with still live downed power lines it’s better to just stay put. My friend had to travel 15m out of his normal commute each way just to get to his job due to massive trees laying in the road and still live power lines in a few places. And got a flat tire for his efforts. Lots of nails and other what not still in the roads.

Interestingly enough a lot of the whining is NOT coming from the typical government dependent crowd. The Hoboken water front is full of million dollar plus condos. The median income is over 100K/yr. It’s yuppieville.

Now, having said all this, most of these yuppies probably eat out most meals. I lived there for a while. I was considered ‘frugal’ because I DID cook most of my meals. It’s not an exaggeration that many of them literally can’t boil water. and they REALLY can’t boil it now! So they don’t have 3 days of food in their apartments. The wealthier the inhabitants, the LESS likely they are to eat in in the NYC area. Thus, less likely to have food at home in case of emergency. I had roughly a month’s worth. However, in the case of no potable water that might have been tricky. If the pumps don’t work most everyone higher than the first or second floor won’t have water regardless of whether it’s drinkable or not. Storing gallons and gallons of bottled water in a 4th floor 600sqft apartment becomes problematic. And you still have to flush the potties. If you have no water pressure even a Berkey filter is useless. Unless you think they could filter the sewage and chemical contaminated ‘flood water’ on the streets in hoboken? Gross.

I bet they’ll have more food in their apartments AFTER this however. And they’ll evac. In fact, the next powerful NE storm that hits there’ll be a sea of tail lights headed west on every major thoroughfare LOL. But that brings up another problem. There aren’t enough hotel rooms in the PA/upstate NY area to put them all. And shelters can be dodgy affairs with theft and assault on the menu if you end up in a bad crowd. I can see why people don’t evac to a shelter.

I have a unique perspective in that I lived up there for nearly 10 years AND lived through Katrina. It’s a logistical nightmare up there that really can’t be 100% prepped for even IF you don’t live in an evac zone. The inability to completely prep, securely, up there is one reason I moved. Fortunately for me *I* had family that was rural and southern. And a source of support I could lean on that did NOT involve employment in that area. I don’t expect most of the people involved do, however. They have to stay where the jobs are. And it’s difficult enough to find a job up there now days. Much less in the rural south.

Their problem wasn’t stupidity. It was normalcy bias. And it’s eaten their lunch. I suspect after this, the ones that can afford it will have ‘bug out’ camps or shacks in the adirondacks and poconos that WILL be stocked with preps!