It’s been over two days since the destructive hurricane hit and among problems such as power outages and fallen trees, gas shortages dominate the east coast’s struggles. After the first day, things seemed to get back to normal as power slowly came back on and emergency crews littered the neighborhoods cleaning up debris.
It’s not until you go out to fill your car with a tank of gas until you realize that normalcy might take a little longer than hoped. If you didn’t stock up on gas before the storm hit, good luck finding a gas station open or a one that you don’t have to wait hours for in line. Lines for gas were seen running in all directions and for up to a mile in some cases on Thursday.
As if it weren’t bad enough, bad tempers aided to the frenzy. At an Exxon in Montclair, N.J., the owner was forced to call the police and turn off the pumps for 45 minutes to calm things down.
“I’ve been pumping gas for 36 hours, I pumped 1,500 gallons,” said Abhishek Soni, the owner of the Exxon, “My nose, my mouth is bleeding from the fumes. The fighting just makes it worse.”
The effort to secure enough gas for the impacted states has become the priority among Hurricane Sandy aftermath issues. In Yonkers, Mayor Mike Spano banned anyone from buying more than 10 gallons of gas per day. The U.S. Coast Guard is helping by opening up the ports of New York and New Jersey, which were closed before the hurricane.
So will things ever get back to normal? Yes, slowly but surely they will. In the meantime, I’d rather sit at home than wait over an hour to fill my tank.