Hurricane!

Free market theory relies on having reasonable information to determine fair prices, so price regulation after a disaster may simply acknowledge a situation in which markets aren't working correctly.

There was a case last year where Hurricane Jeanne came through my neck of the woods (as well as other parts of FL). An entrepreneurial individual in Alabama was going to max out his business credit cards to buy generators, rent some moving trucks, and get these generators down to FL where people needed them. However, he was notified that the price he wanted to charge for the generators would be "too high", according to state anti-gouging laws. So, he scrapped the idea.