Batteries, Water and Hot Dogs Flying Off the Shelves

With his last few water jugs in the shopping cart at in Mattituck just before noon on Friday, Mattituck resident Jim Mikebank said he was ready for anything Mother Nature has to give this weekend.

"We're ready for the big hit," he said, referring to Hurricane Irene heading toward Long Island with winds still blowing at over 100 miles per hour.

Though the hurricane has weakened, it is still expected to hit Long Island on Sunday, and residents face up to an 80 percent probability of seeing tropical storm-force winds up to 74 mph. The NOAA model also shows the Island has a 20-percent chance of facing hurricane force winds. 

And stores are "crazy busy" with customers looking for bottled water, flashlights, tarps — and hot dogs, according to Waldbaum's manager Liz Lynch.

"We're moving tons of canned goods too," she said. "We ran out of bottled water yesterday but we're all good on that, and we're getting more batteries soon."

Bert Spitz of East Norwich was visiting Mattituck Friday morning and decided to pop in to for some duct tape and a tarp.

"I'm just trying to think of anything I could possibly need before the storm," he said.

Clerk Ken Denston added that the store was already wiped out of certain batteries and flashlights by 11:30 a.m.

"Steady busy is good but this has been annoying busy," he said.

Peter Anderer at in Greenport said he has been extremely busy all day so far and are also out of flashlights and batteries and have been selling a lot of kerosene lamps. Evan Ackroyd at Ace Hardware in Southold said that workers have "gone through two years of stock in two days."

"It's been going crazy. Very hectic," he said, adding that the store is "wiped out" of essentials at the moment. They went to a different supplier and are expecting another order later today.

Ace will be open normal business hours on Saturday. There is no word on Sunday, but if the town loses power, Ackroyd says they have to close.

With reporting by Sandy Martocchia.