Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County- Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit the Northeast by Monday afternoon and on the eve of the "super storm" reality sets in and last minute preparations take place.
The city of Wilkes-Barre is already anticipating flooding. They closed the flood gates along Solomon Creek at South Franklin Street as well as the gates over on Waller Street. Meanwhile, shoppers who waited until now to prepare may have waited too long.
With flood gates closing and shelves going bare, Rita Yevtte Walters of Wilkes-Barre says "I'm glad that they are doing it, but it does make you a little edgy." Diane Baton also of Wilkes-Barre adds, "when I went out to get batteries and no one had batteries I started getting like ugh! That maybe this is really real. This is really happening." The rush to the store is on as people realize a hurricane is really on her way. "I think reality hit when they said no school on Monday or Tuesday and I said ok this is for real," says Baton.
The employees at Shiel's Family Market restocked the water supply at least four times Sunday, while the flashlight batteries were completely out of stock. Walters says "I got a call today from PPL they left a message on my phone letting me know it's possible that there could be an outage for 7 to 8 days."
Though some people fear that Sandy will be a repeat of Irene, others say they are more prepared this time around. Kereshia Brereton is from Hanover says, "it's because of what happened last year, but the levy worked good so hopefully it holds up this year if anything like that happened." "We've been alerted very, very early this time, how to prepare, where last time it was a little early but for some people it was a hardship trying to get things together," Walters adds.
Everyone is preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. Baton says, "I'm freaked out! Why, because I don't want it to happen." The city of Wilkes-Barre will make a decision by Monday afternoon about whether or not to close the other two flood gates.
