As Hurricane Sandy gets closer to the northeast, residents are running all over town trying to grab supplies while they last in case of possible power outages.

At Hopatcong Paints & Hardware, store owner Priscilla Sutphen said residents had been coming in all day Friday for all types of supplies relating to lighting and water.

She said the most popular items the store sold were flashlights, batteries and gas cans. Sutphen said the store sold completely out of gas cans, and there's still several flashlights to choose from and plenty of batteries left.

After selling over a dozen gas cans on Friday, Sutphen said the hardware store is getting in a new order of them on Tuesday.

Sutphen also worked during Hurricane Irene, and said it feels very simliar back in Aug. 2011 when everyone was preparing for the summer storm.

"People get worried, they get scared so they back up," she said. "It's always good to be prepared."

Sutphen said when many customers came in for gas cans, they said that the larger stores, such as Lowe's, Home Depot, and Walmart were already sold out.

At the Lowe's in Flanders, assistant store manager Melissa McCambridge said on Friday they sold out of many items, including generators, batteries, and gas cans.

She said they're expecting to get more shipments in throughout the weekend.

The store was especially crowded on Friday with customers coming in and out all day, McCambridge said, more so than she remembers during Irene.

"I think that people take this storm more seriously due to the effects that Irene had on our area," she said, "so I'm definitely seeing a lot of people running in for items that they may not have before."

Over in Sparta at the Sparta Hardware Store, employee Sean Fitzsimmons also said Friday was an "extremely busy" day.

He said the most popular items were generators, five-gallon gas cans, D batteries, and flashlights, all of which they sold out of.

Fitzsimmons said the store hopes to get more shipments in by Wednesday, and said although people won't be able to get the supplies before the storm, they could still use them if they're out of power at that time.