Following devastating hurricanes that hit Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico in 2017 Donald Boudreaux, a professor of economics at George Mason University, argued that high prices for water, gasoline, and airline fares would aid in the recovery from such disasters and criticized politicians who called for capping prices of essentials items to protect consumers from “price gouging” by sellers:

…high prices are an essential way to ensure that resources get where they are desperately needed. Imposing artificially low prices creates shortages of vital supplies and makes it harder for people to recover from disasters.

Why would measures to prevent prices from rising in the aftermath of a hurricane make it more difficult for people to recover from the hurricane?