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Gasoline Runs Short, Adding Woes to Storm Recovery
Anger Flares as Recovery Inches Ahead
(about 4 hours later)
Widespread gas shortages stirred fears among residents and disrupted some rescue and emergency services as the New York region continued to struggle on Friday to return to a semblance of normalcy after being ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.
Patience was wearing thin on Friday amid widespread gas shortages, chilly homes without electricity and snaking lines as far as the eye could see for everything from buses to food handouts as many parts of the New York City region continued to stagger from the devastation left by Hurricane Sandy.
Tiny increments of progress, including a second day of limited subway and bus lines, have been made in the aftermath of what officials are calling the worst storm to hit New York City. But they were overshadowed by new estimates of the storm’s financial cost, struggles to restore power, and by the discovery of more bodies in flooded communities.
As more than one million New Yorkers continued to cope with power failures, even the planned New York City Marathon became a source of bitter derision when news emerged that generators being used by organizers could have served hundreds of residences on Staten Island, the borough that bore the brunt of the city’s casualties.
On Friday, there was sign of progress in the work to restore power as Consolidated Edison announced that electricity should be restored to a small sliver of Lower Manhattan south of the Brooklyn Bridge by midnight. Most of the rest of Manhattan should get power sometime on Saturday.
Government officials asked for patience. City departments tried to stave off the anger by opening help lines, handing out free meals, updating citizens with progress in restoring services and monitoring Twitter feeds, where they answered residents directly about their individual commutes. Fees were waived for bus and subway travel.
Four days after Hurricane Sandy, the effort to secure enough gas for the region moved to the forefront of recovery work. The problems affected even New York City, where the Taxi Commission warned that the suddenly indispensable fleet of yellow cabs would thin significantly Friday because of the fuel shortage. City officials said they reached an agreement with a major supplier Thursday night that would ensure that emergency operations — fire, police, sanitation and work by the parks department to clean up downed trees — would continue uninterrupted.
And amid the continuing hardships, there were some positive signs: some parts of Lower Manhattan might have power by the end of Friday, New Jersey Transit started running partial rail service, more of the Metro-North Railroad system was back and the Staten Island Ferry started up again.
In Union, N.J., the problem was starkly highlighted on Thursday when lines of cars waiting for gas at a Sunoco ran in three directions: a mile-long line up the Garden State Parkway, a half-mile line along Vauxhall Road, and another, including a fleet of mail trucks that needed to refuel before resuming their rounds, snaking through a back entrance. The scene was being replayed across the state as drivers waited in lines that ran hundreds of vehicles deep, requiring state troopers and local police officers to protect against exploding tempers.
But five days after the storm ravaged the area, people who were coping with a variety of problems were becoming exasperated. At a housing project in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, residents who stayed behind expressed mounting frustration at the absence of electricity, services, and in some cases, security. Some said they were so frightened that they locked themselves in their apartments at night and refused to open the doors to anyone.
“I’ve been pumping gas for 36 hours; I pumped 17,000 gallons,” said Abhishek Soni, the owner of an Exxon in Montclair, where disputes in the line Wednesday night had become so heated that Mr. Soni called the police and turned off the pumps for 45 minutes to restore calm. “My nose, my mouth is bleeding from the fumes. The fighting just makes it worse.”
“It’s terrible,” one resident, Marilyn Smalls, 48, said. “Totally black. It’s dangerous.”
She said she would not even venture into the halls at night. “I don’t know who’s there,” she said.
On Friday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the city had made “great progress,” with service restored to about half of the two million customers who lost electricity during the storm. But perhaps mindful of the realities of disaster recovery, his morning briefing became a delivery of give-and-take, sprinkling his encouraging updates with expressions of caution.
Noting that progress in restoring power to Manhattan’s downtown area in particular would be a “big step forward” for transportation serving the area, he also hedged his remarks, noting it “did not mean that every light” would work.
Speaking about the shortages, including of gas, he said: “It is going to require some patience, it is not going to get better overnight, it is not going to be a one or two or three day situation. A little patience, a little compassion, a little understanding will make it better for everyone.”
“It has been a long week for everyone,” he added. “It is not over. There are still inconveniences but it could have been a lot, lot worse.”
Tiny increments of progress, including a second day of limited subway and bus lines, have been made in the aftermath of the hurricane, which made landfall on Monday night and wrought what officials now describe as the worst storm to hit New York City. Its punishing floods, rains and wind left millions of people with overwhelming problems they too had likely never faced.
Gina Braddish, 27, had four feet of water flood her home in Long Beach, on Long Island, leaving a slick of oil, gasoline and raw sewage across her floors.
“I have oil slicked on my floors and they tell me it’s not an emergency,” she said. “When the house blows up, then it’s an emergency. I just want someone to come down here and help.”
As the week drew to a close, the widespread shortages disrupted some rescue and emergency services. The effort to secure enough gas for the region moved to the forefront of recovery work.
Mr. Cuomo said that as ports were reopened, the gas shortages should start to ease.
In New Jersey, drivers waited in lines that ran hundreds of vehicles deep, requiring state troopers and local police officers to protect against exploding tempers. Some ran out of gas waiting.
At stations that were open, nerves frayed. Fights broke out Thursday at the blocklong Hess station on 10th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, forcing the Police Department to send three officers to keep the peace, a police official said. By evening, the police had to close two lanes of the broad thoroughfare to accommodate a line of customers stretching eight blocks, to 37th Street.
Abhishek Soni, the owner of an Exxon in Montclair, N.J., called the police and turned off pumps for 45 minutes to cool nerves when disputes in the line Wednesday night became heated. “My nose, my mouth is bleeding from the fumes. The fighting just makes it worse.”
On Friday, the Queens district attorney’s office said a St. Albans man had been arrested after he pointed a pistol at a motorist who complained when he tried to cut a line at a Queens gas station. The man, Sean M. Bailey, 35, was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree menacing.
Power gradually seeped back into apartments, as Consolidated Edison announced that electricity should be restored to a small sliver of Lower Manhattan south of the Brooklyn Bridge by midnight. Most of the rest of Manhattan should get power sometime on Saturday.
Some have questioned whether the volunteers for the annual marathon, scheduled for Sunday, could be better deployed to assist with disaster relief. The New York Post cover questioned its use of generators. Mr. Cuomo said he would leave the decision on holding the marathon to local officials, but that he understood “both sides.”
Commuters have had to adapt to new rules to get to work with ingenuity and patience. On Friday in New York City, subway trains, pressed back onto the rails on Thursday, continued with limited service, with downtown trains in Manhattan going as far as 34th Street before stopping because of power problems there.
Commuters have had to adapt to new rules to get to work with ingenuity and patience. On Friday in New York City, subway trains, pressed back onto the rails on Thursday, continued with limited service, with downtown trains in Manhattan going as far as 34th Street before stopping because of power problems there.
For some commuters emerging from the F line at 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue on Friday morning, commuting sounded like solving a geometry problem. Leslie Watson, 43, a supervisor for AM New York, said that he took the M train over the F line but that he’d normally take the E. Car and bus transportation is sketchy, and there are just two local trains running local.
Leslie Watson, 43, a supervisor for AM New York, said that he took the M train over the F line but that he would normally take the E. Car and bus transportation is sketchy, and there are just two local trains running local.
“Yesterday, there were a couple of people from M.T.A. giving out information, but otherwise, like today, you’re on your own,” Mr. Watson said. “Not bad, but not good. My commute was 12 minutes late.”
“Yesterday, there were a couple of people from M.T.A. giving out information, but otherwise, like today, you’re on your own,” Mr. Watson said. “Not bad, but not good. My commute was 12 minutes late.”
Commuters started arriving in large numbers between 5 and 5:30 a.m. at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where they got on shuttle buses that would take them to Manhattan and connect them with other stops in the transit system, which has been slowly returning to life since Wednesday.
By midmorning on Friday, long lines grew for the Williamsburg ferry service and they snaked around the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where people boarded shuttle buses to Manhattan to connect with other stops in the transit system. Many adapted, eating breakfast where they stood.
But East River crossings by private passenger car were reportedly slightly more fluid as drivers apparently realized the authorities meant business when they required cars to carry three passengers or more in order to cross into Manhattan. Staten Island ferry service was scheduled to resume routes.
“I am rereading ‘Game of Thrones,’ ” Colin Wiggins, 30, who works in student affairs for CUNY in the northwest Bronx, said as she waited. “I chose this book because I knew I wanted something long and interesting for the next days.”
Though Thursday marked the start of the return to routine for many who commute to work or celebrated the resumption of power, the scenes of long lines, fistfights at gas stations and siphoning at parking lots highlighted the difficult, uneven slog to recovery.
East River crossings by private passenger car were reportedly slightly more fluid as drivers apparently realized the authorities meant business when they required cars to carry three passengers or more in order to cross into Manhattan. Staten Island Ferry service resumed.
On Friday, the Queens district attorney’s office said a St. Albans man had been arrested after he pointed a pistol at a motorist who complained when he tried to cut a line at a gas station. The man, Sean M. Bailey, 35, was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree menacing.
The losses continue to pile up.
Mr. Bailey tried to pull his BMW ahead of another motorist on a gas line on Astoria Boulevard early on Thursday, the district attorney’s office said. When the motorist complained, the district attorney’s office said, Mr. Bailey pointed a gun at him and said, “If you don’t pull back, you’re not getting gas tonight.”
The death toll in New York City has risen to at least 41. The financial toll will approach $50 billion, according to an early estimate from economists at Moody’s Analytics — about $30 billion in property damage, the rest in lost economic activity like meals and canceled flights.
City officials have emphasized they want to get the city back on its feet as soon as possible. In another sign of that, officials announced that the Staten Island Ferry would start operating again on Friday.
Reporting
on the storm was contributed by Russ Buettner, Annie Correal, Alison Leigh Cowan, Sheri Fink, Joseph Goldstein, J. David Goodman, Denise Grady, Christine Hauser, Winnie Hu, Randy Leonard, William K. Rashbaum, Ray Rivera, Liz Robbins, Nate Schweber, Michael Schwirtz, Kirk Semple, Stacey Stowe, Rebecca White, Michael Wilsonand Vivian Yee.
The death toll in New York City rose to 38, as rescuers continued to discover bodies while combing through coastal wreckage. Among them were the bodies of two boys, 2 and 4, who had been torn from their mother by raging floodwaters on Staten Island on Monday night.
The losses from the storm will approach $50 billion, according to an early estimate from economists at Moody’s Analytics — about $30 billion in property damage, the rest in lost economic activity like meals and canceled flights.
The lack of power continued to bedevil efforts to address the damage. About 43 percent of customers in New Jersey and about 16 percent in New York State remained without electricity.
On Friday, Con Ed officials said that most customers in the southeastern tip of Manhattan were expected to have power by midnight, and that by Saturday, electricity will be restored throughout Manhattan.
Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesman, said that before the end of the day on Friday, power should be restored to the area roughly south of Frankfort Street, which runs along the roadway leading to the Brooklyn Bridge. In that area, customers east of Broadway will have electricity, but those west of Broadway will be restored by Saturday, although some customers there already have power, he said.
Another spokesman, Allan Drury, said power would be restored by Saturday to all customers in Manhattan who lost their service because of Hurricane Sandy, but other boroughs in New York City would take longer.
The power, commuting and recovery issues were only aggravated by the increasingly short supply of gas, particularly given that many suburban residents in New Jersey and elsewhere were heading to the stations to fuel generators, which provided the lone source of power and heat to homes across the region.
According to figures from AAA, of the gas stations it monitors, roughly 60 percent of stations in New Jersey and 70 percent on Long Island were closed.
At stations that were open, nerves frayed. Fights broke out Thursday at the block-long Hess station on 10th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, forcing the Police Department to send three officers to keep the peace, a police official said. By evening, the police had to close two lanes of the broad thoroughfare to accommodate a line of customers stretching eight blocks, to 37th Street.
The ports and refineries that supply much of the region’s gas had been shut down in advance of the storm and were damaged by it. That disrupted deliveries to gas stations that had power to pump the fuel. But the bigger problem was that many stations and storage facilities remained without power.
Politicians were scrambling Thursday to increase the supply of fuel — the Port of New York and New Jersey opened just enough to allow boats carrying gas to move, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey waived restrictions that make it harder for stations to buy gas from out-of-state suppliers. Mr. Christie’s office had warned that price gougers would be prosecuted, but drivers were reporting that some stations were charging more than $4 a gallon, even though the state had set gas prices at $3.59 on the highways last week.
Mr. Christie said Thursday afternoon that President Obama had sent 250,000 gallons of gas and 500,000 gallons of diesel fuel to the state through the Department of Defense, and he pledged to send more if needed.
Despite these steps the situation was not expected to get significantly better on Friday. Utility companies said power might not be fully restored until late next week.
In Paterson, N.J., the state’s third-largest city, the Police Department was trying to negotiate emergency contracts for gas, and short of that, said it would beginning siphoning it from other city vehicles to keep police cruisers running.
The Essex County executive, Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr., said that the fuel shortage had become his No. 1 concern, causing officials to start limiting gas half a tank at a time to police and fire vehicles. “All 22 of our municipalities are having problems getting fuel,” he said. “Everyone’s on edge.”
Some drove hours out of their way, across state lines, in search of gas. Others tried their luck at a dozen stations, finding many roped off, or turned to Twitter, trading tips about where lines were long.
That is how Jason Brown, 25, of St. Albans, Queens, learned there might be gas at a BP station two miles away in Valley Stream, Nassau County. He walked there lugging a five-gallon Igloo cooler hoping to fill it with gas for his car — only to find a line stretching a quarter-mile along Sunrise Highway. When the generator pumping the gas failed, the crowd erupted into fights and police officers were called in to close the station.
“I’m trying to get gas for my family,” Mr. Brown said. “Everywhere you go, it’s either a riot or there’s no gas.”
The lines themselves only exacerbated the problem; reports in the local media provoked drivers to buy gasoline before stations ran out. Some spent what fuel they had searching for more and could be seen pushing vehicles toward relief.
“I just want to have it, because you don’t know how long this is going to last,” said Richard Bianchi, waiting in the half-mile line at the Sunoco in Union with a tank that was three-quarters full.
“People are panicking,” said Jimmy Qawasmi, the owner of a Mobil in the Westchester County town of Mamaroneck. “People must have heard something.”
Bloomfield Avenue, a traffic artery connecting several towns in Essex County, N.J., was unusually congested as drivers stopped to lean out their windows at every station: “You got gas?” Mr. Soni’s station in Montclair had received a delivery of 8,000 gallons at 4 p.m. Wednesday, but that had run out by 2:30 a.m. Thursday. A tanker truck passed by, prompting a cheer. “I’m empty!” the driver called out.
Up the road, a tanker turned into one gas station just down from where a crowd was waiting at another. The people waiting dashed across the street, only to see the tanker turn and go to the station where they had been waiting. The police were refusing to let the station open for three hours, but people were determined to hold out.
As Benito Domena, holding two gas cans, said: “The wait is just going to be worse elsewhere.”
Reporting on the storm was contributed by Russ Buettner, Annie Correal, Alison Leigh Cowan, Sheri Fink, Joseph Goldstein, J. David Goodman, Denise Grady, Christine Hauser, Winnie Hu, Randy Leonard, William K. Rashbaum, Ray Rivera, Liz Robbins, Nate Schweber, Kirk Semple, Stacey Stowe, Rebecca White and Vivian Yee.
