Gasoline shortages are hobbling businesses and hampering recovery efforts throughout communities hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, a situation that experts say could persist for several more days.
Even as local authorities seek to alleviate the shortages, they can’t fix the biggest obstacle separating thirsty vehicles from gasoline: power outages that keep gas stations from being able to pump the supplies on hand.
“If everything goes well, by the weekend we could see some relief,” Ralph Bombardiere, head of the New York State Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops, said in a telephone interview. “But it won’t be normal until the end of next week.”
And even when gas is plentiful again, the industry seems unlikely to take the kind of steps that could help keep another storm like Sandy from abruptly making gasoline scarce.
“Once the gas starts to flow, we’ll go back to the same old habits,” said Bombardiere.
Far from a mere inconvenience, a shortage of available fuel makes recovering from the storm far more difficult, slowing down reconstruction and relief efforts, and keeping businesses from operating.
Rashdal Singh of Little Neck, Queens, owner of the New Museum Deli in Manhattan, tried to get gas at three stations around his home on Wednesday night and two more on the Grand Central Parkway on the way into Manhattan Thursday morning.
By the time he picked up two of his employees in Queens and one in the Bronx and opened his business, Singh had less than a quarter tank of gas left. “I hope I can reach home,” he said. “If I can’t find gas today, I may have to catch a taxi or use a relative’s car, or I won’t be able to come to work tomorrow.”
He may have as hard a time finding a taxi as he is finding gas. New York’s famous fleet of yellow taxis is suffering as much as any other industry from the gas shortage, which could make getting around the city even more difficult, at a time when much public transportation is already offline. Huffington Post
