I've never lived in a hurricane prone area, so I guess I really don't know what it's like. But it seems that every year when this sort of thing happens, you hear the same story (via JSOnline):

Supermarkets along Florida's Atlantic coast were stripped of bottled water and canned goods. In the pre-dawn hours Thursday, long lines formed outside home supply stores in Palm Beach County, with dozens of people hoping for a chance to buy plywood or generators. A delivery truck's arrival was met with raucous applause.

Ok, the food and water thing I get... but plywood? After the last hurricane hit, what did you do with all that plywood? Did you throw it away? Personally I'd take it down from the windows, write on them with a big marker which window each one was cut for, then put it in a stack leaning against a wall in the garage. Living in Wisconsin for 14 years now, and having had to change out old storm windows, that's how we handled it. We figured out which ones fit which windows, then wrote on the bottom so we wouldn't have to figure it out the next year. But then... I'm an Engineer... so this thinking should be no surprise to anyone. Am I missing something here? Is there a reason that it seems nobody saves the plywood between hurricanes? Anyone from Florida actually read my blog?