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Business & Tech

Kings Park Readies for Hurricane Irene

Shoppers head downtown for food, supplies.

Kings Parkers are readying for Hurricane Irene.  With an expected landfall of Sunday, residents have been scrambling to local stores for key items. 

Dozens of residents were at Kings Park Hardware Company in Tanzi Plaza to buy storm essentials like flashlights, tarps and batteries.  

“The rush started at 7:00 a.m. this morning when we opened our doors,” said Franchie.

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The newly opened store is owned by Kings park residents Tony Tanzi, Mike Francie and Jim Brower.  Bustling with activity all day, they have already sold out of D batteries and chainsaws.  Franchie said more chainsaws and flashlights were arriving Friday morning.

 “We went around and bought up all the flashlights we could find so they could be here for the people of Kings Park,” said Tanzi. 

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According to Tanzi the store also has lanterns and barbeque grills, which residents can use in case of a power loss to cook food. The store does not sell generators but does have candles.

The community hardware store has also stocked cases of water for Kings Park residents with additional cases being delivered.

At nearby Key Food, the mood was calm. Resident Pat and Rick Holmes were not hurricane shopping but merely buying standard groceries.   Kings Park resident Margaret said she was ready for the storm and buying some essentials in case Kings Park gets hit hard.

“I was ten days without power during Hurricane Gloria, so I bought extra propane fuel in case of electrical outages,” said Margaret.

She said she’s not going crazy with groceries – she bought a few extras and some batteries.  Key Food had plenty of bread, milk and eggs on the shelves.  However, Assistant Manager Bob, said the gallons of water were gone and they were also out of D batteries. 

“We ordered more water and batteries and they should be here on Friday – we anticipate the next two days to be crazy,” he added.    He said the one thing they have plenty of at this time is beer in case residents were planning on a hurricane party.

Tanzi said they’ll be open at 7:00 a.m. sharp on Friday and will stay open all weekend to try to get Kings Park residents everything they need to get through Hurricane Irene. 

To find out if shipments of flashlights and chainsaws have arrived, call Kings Park Hardware & Co. at 269.2378. 

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