Re: the hurricane and gouging (or not)
Interesting item to bring into town would have been TV antennas.
The cable system was knocked out for about 10 weeks. There was a run on antennas and they became hard to get locally. Sure you could go online and get one, except because the cable was out, most people had no access to the internet. Just use your smartphone, not if you had Verizon, their system was knocked down to a texting and a phone call, and in the first several weeks, chances are that didn't even work well.
I bought an AT&T phone to tether to my computer, the AT&T system was working well. I was told the were the preferred provider for first responders, this required their system to be more hardened to withstand, this type of event.
btw, I built a quick antenna for my neighbor, he used it until the cable was back and then gave it to his momma up in the boonies. I'm using a more elaborate antenna a friend built, but I can't say it is better than the very quick antenna I built.