Here a compromise might be something like caps on price increases (maybe max 500%) and some mild rules to prevent hoarding. I remember reading something like that in actual law, but it's been a while and I'm not sure about details anymore.
It's also interesting many forms of disaster relief are provided by the governments or non-profits instead by the free market directly. This development seems like a good indicator that free markets might have significant drawbacks in such situations.
See the quote from the Texas AG in the article here: https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-attorney-general-warns-price...
[Illegal to sell] fuel, food, medicine or another necessity
at an exorbitant or excessive price
I wonder what the caselaw looks like, and what are some actual price multipliers involved in successful and failed prosecutions.
[1] Sometimes vague standards like that are deliberately designed to incentive conservative behavior while permitting equitable treatment (give defendant benefit of a doubt) in actual disputes. Being scared you could easily run afoul of the law is partly the point. That works better when designed for enforcement by private plaintiffs where quantifiable harm must plausibly have occurred. It's prone to abuse when enforced by regulators preemptively as there's no limiting factor of manifest harm. If everybody was happy to pay $50, no harm no foul. If somebody's grandmother passed out from dehydration because she couldn't afford a bottle even though the shelves were full, then not only do we have harm but we have a concrete context to gauge "excessive". Preemptive enforcement lacks these contextualizing facts.
No one goes to a ballgame to stock up on $5 bottles of water...
Force retailers to keep bottles of water at $0.50/bottle and the sensible thing to do post-disaster if the water supply is uncertain is to buy all of them. In the worst case, you bought something at a normal price that won't spoil essentially ever. In a not unexpected case, you have secured a supply of water for yourself and family and have something that may be barter-able for other supplies that you might need.