Hurricane SandyGasoline shortages, housing problems, power slowly returning

Published 5 November 2012

Anger is growing over gasoline shortages in New York and New Jersey; gas rationing was imposed in northern New Jersey; crowds lined up at free fuel distribution sites in New York City’s five boroughs, with a limit of ten gallons per person; more New Yorkers got power Saturday for the first time since Sandy struck; power has been restored to about 60 percent of the New York metropolitan area, with about 900,000 still without electricity, including about 550,000 on Long Island; about 2.6 million people remained without power in six states after Sandy came ashore Monday night; in New York, 30,000 to 40,000 people, mainly residents of public housing, will have to find new homes, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday

Queue of pedestrians carrying gas cans // Source: voafanti.com

Here is a summary of the major Hurricane Sandy-related developments since Friday. The summary is based on reports in the New York Times, the BBC, Fox News, and the Wall Street Journal.

Oil delivery, gasoline

  • Anger mounted over gasoline shortages. Gas rationing was imposed in northern New Jersey, with police enforcing rules which allowed only motorists with odd-numbered license plates to refuel on Saturday, while those with even-numbered plates had to wait until Sunday.
  • Crowds lined up at free fuel distribution sites in New York City’s five boroughs, with a limit of ten gallons per person. New York officials said emergency vehicles would have priority in gasoline allocation over the public.
  • At some refueling locations, lines of waiting cars stretched for two and three miles. In addition, thousands of New Yorkers came to the refueling stations on foot, carrying cans.
  • New York governor Andrew Cuomo had announced that the 5,000-gallon trucks from the Defense Department would set up emergency mobile gas stations at five locations around the New York City metropolitan area.
  • New York state officials urged the public to stay away from the refueling stations until emergency responders first got their gasoline and more supplies are then made available.
  • Governor Cuomo said that eight million gallons of fuel had been delivered since the New York Harbor reopened on Friday, and twenty-eight million more gallons of fuel would be delivered over the weekend.
  • The Port of New York, and all other ports affected by Sandy, have now been reopened to ship traffic, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Saturday. Of the fifty oil terminals and tank farms which were affected by Sandy, at least eleven in New York and New Jersey remained closed, according to the DOE. Some of the closed terminals accounted for the region’s largest oil delivery and storage hub, the New York Harbor, whose tanks in New York and New Jersey have capacity to store more than seventy-five million barrels of petroleum and refined products.
  • Phillips 66’s 238,000 barrel-per-day Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey, has already had its power restored, but the plant could be weeks away from restarting due to heavy damage caused by salt-water flooding.
  • As of Friday, Hess Corp’s nearby 70,000-bpd plant in Port Reading, New Jersey, remained shut down.