I never realized how dependent we are on our car until there was no gas. People are desperate to fill up, lines were close to 3 hours with constant the danger of running out before your turn.
People can't go to work, to school, to buy groceries. I live in an area where gas stations were working but gas is gone, because our neighbors in Westchester and NJ are out of power and all coming for gas to places where power is on and service stations are operational. It has been a week and on a weekend our thoughts were mostly occupied by different ideas on how and where one could get gas.
Last night DH drove out to Maryland for a business trip, on 1/3 of tank, hoping that he will get to a place far enough from NYC that has gas before he runs out. He researched locations off the turnpike, and had help from a colleague that has vacation house in South Jersey and knows the local area off the main turnpike route. He was able to get gas of exit 6! (something like 120miles away) It was such an enormous relief. He is fine there, and will come home with almost a full tank. My mom and my neighbors are afraid to leave for a gas station because if gas runs out before they fill up they wont be able to get back.
Driving is limited to absolute essentials and roads are getting more deserted every day. It is eery.
It is scary when you can't put gas in your car!
November 5th, 2012 at 08:11 pm
November 5th, 2012 at 10:25 pm 1352154308
November 5th, 2012 at 10:55 pm 1352156140
November 5th, 2012 at 11:25 pm 1352157931
November 5th, 2012 at 11:33 pm 1352158419
Best wishes to you..us on the west coast are thinking about everyone on the east...
November 5th, 2012 at 11:44 pm 1352159076
November 6th, 2012 at 01:06 am 1352163972
November 6th, 2012 at 03:12 am 1352171576
There was no public transportation at first, so people had to drive to work.
You guys probably don't imagine that it will take 3 hours to go 17 miles to work. Than back home in the evening. That was close to 6 hours of driving a day. And she had to go to work (works at the hospital).
We had to get groceries, drove to child indoor place (parks were closed until recently and a toddler can only be cooped up in the apartment for so long), DH had to drive me to another train line from where I could get a train to Manhattan to get to work, so we ended up with 1/3 tank pretty fast.
I thought about gas canisters before the storm too. But where do I want to keep them? In the kitchen? The bedroom? the living room? the baby's room? I did not like those choices. I did not want driving around with them with baby in the car either. Maybe I am irrational, but I didn't like that idea.
November 6th, 2012 at 10:21 am 1352197311
November 6th, 2012 at 12:26 pm 1352204813
November 12th, 2012 at 12:04 am 1352678672
Jerry