When her family in New Jersey went to buy a generator, they found clean shelves instead.
“They’re preparing for the worst right now,” said Jill Martinko, a second-year in exploration, of her family living in New Jersey about an hour-and-a-half from the Atlantic coastline, where Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit Monday.
The hurricane, which passed through the Caribbean killing about 60 people in its path, is expected to disrupt life on the East Coast this week. In anticipation of the hurricane, several places on the East Coast have declared a state of emergency, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, New York and Washington, D.C.
Bob Armstrong, the director of OSU emergency management, and Dave Isaacs, a Student Life spokesman, said severe weather isn’t anticipated in Columbus.
According to the Weather Channel, there have been high wind and flood alerts for the northeast part of Ohio, and rain is expected in areas throughout the state for the rest of the week. In Columbus, there is a 30 percent or more chance of rain until Thursday.
Many students with family and friends in the areas expected to be directly affected by the hurricane have been checking in on their loved ones to make sure they are prepared for the storm ahead.
Gabby Ubilla, a third-year in French and English, said her family living in Sterling, Va., near Washington D.C., had been preparing for the storm by finishing up housework, charging electronics and gassing up their three cars.
“Our main concerns right now are the power going out and our house flooding,” she said in an email. “During major storms our basement floods as well. The last time this happened was during tropical storm Irene just over a year ago. It was so bad we had to get rid of the entire basement carpet and put in new flooring, and we lost a lot of stored items in our crawl space due to water damage.”
Hurricane Irene was a severe storm that hit the East Coast during the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season that resulted in 56 deaths, and several days without power for many.
Myra Sabolesky, a 19-year-old from Uniontown, Ohio, currently living in Manhattan, N.Y., said people have been comparing Hurricane Sandy to Irene.
The New York transit system was expected to close Sunday night due to the storm. It closed last year for Hurricane Irene.
Sabolesky said Sunday that she has been preparing by stocking up on candles and non-perishable food. She said she is thankful that one of her roommates will be staying with her while the storm passes through.
“I don’t like storms … but I think I should be OK,” said Sabolesky, who expects to lose power.
Sabolesky wasn’t the only one in the city who thought to stock up on food. She said when her roommate went to Trader Joe’s, she had to wait a half-hour to check out of the store.
Martinko said aside from the generators that were sold out when her family tried to buy them, they also found that non-perishable food supplies were low as well.
She said her parents aren’t going back to work until the storm passes.
Scott Swope, a 23-year-old from Reading, Pa., said he went to New Jersey over the weekend to help his grandmother prepare for the storm. Living “right off Long Beach Island,” her coastline home is right in the storm’s path.
Swope said he went to New Jersey “just to make sure nothing could be used as projectiles by the wind” in his grandmother’s yard. His grandmother is not planning to evacuate, but she has family in the area she could stay with if needed.
Swope described people preparing for the storm like “something out of a movie.”
“It is the ‘Perfect Storm’ … they’re really expecting it to be devastating.”

Emily Tara and Ally Marotti contributed to this article.