Kelly’s Lumber Yard and City Lumber say sales continue to surpass demand not only following Hurricane Matthew but preceding the devastating category 4 hurricane that tore through the entire Bahamas.

Arlene Pearson Kelly’s warehouse supervisor in the inventory department says pre Hurricane Matthew their east street location showed no signs of slowing down however their issue won’t be running out of supplies.

“As of late Tuesday afternoon after 12 business started to pick up, basically roofing materials people started looking for,” she said.

“As the storm drew nearer the increase in demand increased for plywood, shingles, slate ice and water shield tar and paper nails and we practically sold out of most materials by Wednesday.”

Ms. Pearson also told The Bahama Journal that the public should recognize that there are substitute for regular hardware items.

“There’s a high demand for roofing materials because we had more roofing damage than everything else and our main concern right now is trying to deal with locals and also boat orders,” she said.

“We do have demand coming in from the islands as well, it is hard to meet demand but we are trying our best. We have other things that you can use, treated plywood and architectural shingles.”

City Lumber General Manager Anthony Roberts said it experienced the same influx of customer prior to and post Matthew.

“We had a heavy influx before the storm and after the sort. Before the storm we were selling a lot of plywood to people took what preventions they could,” he said.

“After the storm we were completely inundated with people buying roofing material to repair their homes and businesses.”