Panicked Texas residents scrambled to stock up on food amid a historic winter storm and power outage — sparking long lines and empty shelves at grocery stores, according to reports.
Hundreds of people braved brutally cold weather to line up outside an H-E-B grocery store in Austin on Tuesday as shops struggled to stay open amid supply chain and electricity problems, according to FOX 7.
“As long as I can eat in the next couple days, that’s all I really need,” one shopper told the station.
Meanwhile, workers at The Randalls Steiner Ranch shop in Austin said power outages have caused food to spoil and the shop to scale back hours, according to KXAN.
“It’s pretty picked over, and we had an issue with our freezers not being able to keep things cool,” said one employee of The Randalls, where a line snaked around the block. “There were some things that weren’t able to get sold, so that compounded the issues.”
The rush for food came as a historic storm battered Texas and parts of the central US Tuesday, killing at least 21 people and cutting off power to millions.
“I’m just trying to stock up on supplies that I think I’ll need until this is over,” Austin resident Ryan Lerma told the Austin American-Statesman. “I’m just trying to get essentials.”
