* More than half of all NYC, NJ service stations shut down
* Wall Street banks in lower Manhattan reliant on generators
By David Sheppard and Suzanne Barlyn
NEW YORK Oct 31 (Reuters) – New York taxi and car service
companies started pulling vehicles off the road o n T hursday as
the fuel crunch deepened, with the vast majority of storm-hit
service stations in the greater New York area now out of
gasoline or without power.
Power outages and fuel shortages have forced many gasoline
stations to shut, and now threaten efforts in New York and New
Jersey to get back to business after Hurricane Sandy.
Many homes and businesses that have lost power are also
reliant on gasoline and diesel run generators, including many of
the Wall Street banks in lower Manhattan.
“We’ve had to cancel a lot of cars today because there’s not
enough gas,” said Joue Balulu, a partner at Fone-A-Car in
Brooklyn.
“It’s affecting everybody. Our drivers have to go out to try
and find gas.”
In New Jersey, PSE&G; says 780,000 homes and businesses were
still without power, about 35 percent of their customers, down
from 1.7 million impacted at the peak. On Wednesday gasoline
retailer associations said more than 50 percent of service
stations in New York and New Jersey were shut.
Much of lower Manhattan below 39th Street remains without
power after an explosion at a Con Edison substation on the East
River during the storm. Con Edison said on Wednesday it could be
another three days until power is restored.
On a stretch of Route 206 through Bordentown, New Jersey on
Wednesday, far more gas stations were closed than open.
The line at one of the few gas stations open, a Valero,
extended from the pumps into the highway, blocking the shoulder.
The scene at a second Valero station was reminiscent of the
1973 U.S. oil crisis as 26 cars crowded around the pumps.
“Did you ever think you’d see this again?” one driver was
heard saying through his car’s open window.
Fuel supplies into New York and New Jersey area are being
choked off in several ways: Two refineries that make up a
quarter of the region’s gasoline and diesel capacity are still
idle due to power outages or flooding; the New York Harbor
waterway that imports a fifth of the area’s fuel is still closed
to traffic, and major import terminals are damaged and
powerless.
The main pipeline bringing gasoline and diesel from the U.S.
Gulf Coast refining hub, which pumps 15 percent of the East
Coast’s fuel, also remains shut.
(Reporting by David Sheppard in New York; Editing by Alden
Bentley)
