I love this issue because it's almost always a clear marker of who understands markets and who doesn't. If you want the crisis to be over as quickly as possible, allow markets to do their thing!

Let's say there's a crisis in a neighboring state, and for some reason water is selling for $5/bottle. In a regular market, I load up my truck with water and sell it for $4.50/bottle. But I'm not the only one. Soon the price is falling because so much supply is coming into the area trying to take advantage of the price increase.

OR we can make it illegal for me to bring my water to the crisis and sell it at market price, meaning that I'll simply stay home (and so will everybody else). This obviously puts ALL the burden on charity/government and extends the crisis.

"Price gouging" is simply the market signaling that some things are URGENTLY needed in a specific area. This is the most effective way of returning the market to "normal" conditions.