L.B. residents prep for blizzard

Long Beach residents are battening down the hatches and stocking up on supplies in preparation for tonight’s anticipated blizzard.

The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for Thursday from 6 p.m. to Friday, 1 p.m., when light-freezing rain is expected to turn into a steady falling snow. Blowing snow is predicted, and accumulations are expected to be from 6 to 10 inches. Winds will be from the north at 10 to 30 mph with gusts of up to 35 mph. A coastal flood advisory remains in effect until noon, and a coastal flood watch remains in effect this evening. Temperatures will fall from the mid 30s today to the 20s tonight and into the teens by Friday. Wind chills will make if feel like zero or below zero on Friday.

Long Beach residents turned out in droves to the city’s supermarkets and hardware stores on Thursday, stocking up on food, water, snow shovels and scrapers and salt.

On Facebook, George Ridler described the scene at Waldbaum’s, saying that people were “people buying food like the end of the world was at hand.”

Canals resident Kristie Arden said that the East End Key Foods had very little on the shelves by 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, with people stocking up on essentials to “hunker down” for the storm. Arden said she has snow shovels and salt at the ready to prepare for tomorrow’s storm.

Lamice Abed Denton told the Herald on Facebook that she bought water, packaged goods in case of a power outage, and, of course, hot cocoa.

“I remember three foot blizzards back in the 70’s and 80’s, now those were blizzards,” Denton said. “Fear is the operative in these weather forecasts. My true concern is flooding and losing electricity.”

By 5 p.m. on Thursday, F.M. O’Rourke hardware store on West Beech Street was sold out of salt and snow scrapers, employee Jimmy Wynn said. They still had snow shovels left in stock. Wynn said that the buying spree is common before a snowstorm, but that people seemed more urgent than usual on Thursday.

“This usually happens, but you can tell people are a little more scared than usual, just because of Sandy and everything that’s happened,” Wynn said.

For those who are in the midst of rebuilding from Hurricane Sandy, some concerns revolve around their new houses. West End resident Sam Gallo said that, although her newly built home has a roof, siding and windows protecting it from the elements, National Grid has yet to hook up the gas to her house — after two months of requests— and she is worried her pipes may freeze when temperatures plummet. But as for her current residence, she’s not worried.

“I live in a second floor apartment now, so unless we’re getting like 20 feet of snow, I think I’m good,” Gallo said. “People freak out; it’s snow. I’m afraid to go to Waldbaum’s because I don’t want to be trampled by the masses.”