The Delaware National Guard is ready for Hurricane Sandy. (Photo: WBOC)DOVER, Del.- Flashlights, batteries and gas cans are about all that are left at the Sear's in Dover as customers stocked up ahead of Hurricane Sandy's approach.
"We're looking for generators like the rest of Delaware," said shopper Kelly Boulden on Friday. "And we didn't find any so we got the next best thing, and got a sump pump battery back up."
Boulden and her husband bought the last sump pump at the store.
"I'm mostly concerned about flooding in our basement," she said. "After Irene, power went out and we bailed water for five hours and we don't really want to do that again."
Sear's sold out of all of its generators by early Friday morning and does not expect to get more in stock until Monday.
"We've been seeing a lot of desperate people coming in, just worrying how the storm is going to impact them," said Sear's operations manager Keith Markowitz.
To protect state residents, the Delaware National Guard is planning to man its joint operations center 24/7 this weekend.
"We're preparing for a major catastrophic storm here," said Maj. Gen. Frank Vavala.
Vavala said the key to success after the storm is being pro-active now.
"We're already working on pre-positioning equipment, notification of personnel, standing up our emergency operations center, evacuating our aircraft," he said.
