loved the story, but adored the picture
That IS a great photo. She must have about 15-20 cases of water there.
Note that they are all single serving size bottles.  Long live individualism!
And in a Sprawlmart buggy, no less!  Awesome find.
This is the kind of thing you see all up and down the coast when a hurricane warning gets posted. Many residents have wells, not city service, and the power always goes out. And can stay out for quite a while.

So you fill your bathtub to flush the toilet. You fill your your biggest cooking pots for drinking water... some head to the store and buy it, but they are usually not native residents. They are transplants who don't know the real drill.