Residents Across Tri-State Flood Grocery Stores Ahead Of Major Snowstorm

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Grocery stores across the Tri-State Area were swamped with people on Sunday bracing for an incoming Nor'easter with blizzard conditions.

As CBS2's Valerie Castro reported, customers walked into the Fairway Market in Paramus, New Jersey with empty shopping carts ready to fill them up with supplies.

"Some frozen, easy convenience things like frozen fish and chicken and stuff like that," said shopper Christine Okezie.

Okezie said she went after the essentials and then some, managing to fill the trunk of her car.

"Hopefully everybody took the maddening advice that everybody got to get it done before tomorrow," she said.

That advice seemed to have reached most people as shelves inside many stores across the region were left bare.

The ShopRite in Succasunna, New Jersey was flooded with people trying to stock up ahead of the storm.

Meanwhile the Acme store in Maple Shade, New Jersey was urging customers to stock up for the long haul.

And corner stores in New York City are already running out of milk and other staples.

Residents everywhere agree it's better to be safe than sorry.

"I'm going to do the best I can to prepare for it," said one store customer.

"It's snow, you can enjoy it. It's not always fun, but you can make the best of it," said another shopper.

In Valley Stream, Long Island, a King Kullen grocery store was almost nearly wiped out of bread.

"We know it's going to get pretty bad over the next couple of days and just want to make sure we have enough food for the week," said shopper Manny Cerniglia.

"Some meatloaf and just some milk and eggs," were the items on Elaine Melcer's shopping list.

Others wondered if they'd bought enough.

"I just got a call from my children's school that it was going to be canceled for Tuesday as well so now I'm, thinking it's bigger than I thought it was going to be," said Patti Peretti.

Despite a forecast that says this could be a storm for the record books, many said they'll just take it in stride.

"Everybody gets in to this frenzy and the best idea is just to be prepared," said Okezie.

The Red Cross recommends that you keep enough drinking water on hand for three days in case of an emergency. That's about a gallon of water per person, per day for three days.

Non-perishable food items are always a good idea as well as extra batteries and flashlights.