Widespread gas shortages stirred fears among residents and disrupted some rescue and emergency services on Thursday as the New York region struggled to return to a semblance of normalcy after being ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.
Tiny increments of progress ”” some subway and bus lines were back in service ”” 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.
The lines of cars waiting for gas at a Sunoco here 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 to protect against exploding tempers.
I am reading alarming stories about food and water shortages in the NY/NJ area. I am beginning to worry about what they will find in some of those high rises when the power comes back on. Does anyone know of church or charity efforts providing emergency supplies and assistance? Is the Salvation Army there? Are the New Yorkers who still have power organizing relief for those who don’t? I hope I am merely misunderstanding from a distance what might seem a failure of Good Samaritanism in the area. How can people from other parts of the country help and feel comfortable that their money is actually helping, now?