I can buy a 40 bottle case of water at Sam's Club for $3.99 but at a baseball game that same bottle is $3.00 or $120 a case.
Is that gouging?
Before the storm hit, why didn't people fill up containers with tap water?
People don't plan, and then want gummint protection, price protection, health care protection.
If $40 a case is too expensive, don't buy it, I'm sure that some bleeding heart liberal will be glad to share their water.
You can bring your own water to baseball games. Secondly, you couldn’t buy water for cheaper, because there wasn’t any. 27 million people were trying to prepare at the same time. There where no supplies. 3 days before the storm there wasn’t anything. Shelves were completely bare. Retailers could not keep up. Gas stations were empty and still are. And will be for quite some time.
Additionally, the coastal areas of FL are very wealthy. The interior is made up of middle class and poor. There is only so much they can afford to prepare.
The free market doesnt work in a disaster area. Unless you have experienced a disaster of this magnitude, you are speaking from a position of ignorance.
Oh btw, I am fortunately well prepared and well supplied. Our middle school and local sports complex is full of people from the southern part of the state. They arrived here with what they could carry. How does the free market work for them?