Did people in cities need to strip the shelves bare?
If people stockpiled every time bad weather was forecast it would cause chaos. And how do they get supplies when tney are cut off anyway?
If I lived in a remote rural place I would have more than 5 days supply of food and fuel in stock. The weather men and women on the news were forecasting very bad weather a week in advance of it arriving, plenty of time to get stocked up before getting cut off.

