There have already been more than 500 complaints about price gouging during Hurricane Harvey over the weekend, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told CNBC on Monday.
That includes reports of up to $99 for a case of water, hotels that are tripling or quadrupling their prices and fuel going for $4 to $10 a gallon, he said in an interview with “Closing Bell.”
“These are things you can’t do in Texas,” Paxton said. “There are significant penalties if you price gouge in a crisis like this.”
Anyone who does so can be hit with a $20,000 fine per occurrence, or up to $250,000 if the victim is someone age 65 or older.
As for whether there will be a shortage of goods, Paxton said the big retailers are in the process of re-establishing supply chains as quickly as they can.
“I don’t think as large as our country is, as large as Texas is, that supply is ultimately going to be that big of an issue.”
Hurricane Harvey was the most powerful hurricane to strike Texas in more than 50 years when it came ashore on Friday near Corpus Christi. Now a tropical storm, Harvey is expected to remain over the state’s Gulf Coast for the next few days, dropping a year’s worth of rain in about a week, with threats of flooding extending into neighboring Louisiana.
The historic flooding in Houston will likely worsen as federal engineers release water from overflowing reservoirs to keep it from jumping dams and surging uncontrollably into the homes they protect, officials said.
— Reuters contributed to this report.
My son and daughter-in-law are smart…they stocked up on groceries and water (plus they have a good water filter) as well as gasoline Saturday morning before the deluge hit. Plus they are among the few in their city (near Houston) to not have house flooding, and have been told not to report to work (and my son can work from home, where he still has electric and internet).
That’s wonderful news, DL. Thank you for the update.
Glad you got out in the nick of time.
“These are things you can’t do in Texas,” Paxton said. “There are significant penalties if you price gouge in a crisis like this.”
The only way we’ll have any real proof is if someone actually paid that price and kept the receipt.
There are some real scumbags out there.
FEMA bound, hopefully.
Hey Hal what’s shaking.
Yeah…
Some of those scenes in that movie are classic.
Seeing the title $99 water, this scene entered my thoughts immediately.
Daily battle here flee. I won’t complain out loud today though.
First stop this morning fueling the pickup. In the parking lot two young puffed up state police had 4 natives sitting on the ground, and were rifling through the vehicle.
Sat there a while and observed. They get edgy when they’re being watched.
It’s good to know how things work.
It’s good to know how to modify things when they don’t work the way we’d like them to. 😉
Hope you are well.