First
Sandy, now this! Freak fall nor'easter blitzes battered New York
City, crippling transport and threatening MORE floods
A
wicked nor’easter packing 60 mph gusts and a freak fall snowfall
whacked the city Wednesday, threatening a reprise of last week’s
power outages and flooding from the departed superstorm.
7
November, 2012
Weather-weary
New Yorkers got the last thing they wanted just eight days after
Hurricane Sandy’s cruel assault: Wind-whipped snow. Sleet. And more
rain.
A
wicked nor’easter packing 60 mph gusts and a freak fall snowfall
whacked the city Wednesday, threatening a reprise of last week’s
power outages and flooding from the departed superstorm.
The
storm was poised to dump three inches of snow — and it’s still
the first week of November.
“It’s
crazy,” said restaurant worker Torian Koonce, 25, taking a smoke
break on Eighth Ave. “First the hurricane tore up the city. Now
Mother Nature wants to tear up the city again with a nor’easter.
“This
is just the start. Winter hasn’t even begun yet.”
The
absence of locusts and frogs was about the only bright spot in the
plague of miserable weather that has more than 66,000 city residents
still living without power.
- Central Atlantic gasoline stocks down 310,000 barrels-EIA
- Gasoline stuck at refineries and terminals with power out
- Two refineries still shut after Sandy
- Fewer NY stations had gasoline Wednesday vs. Tuesday – EIA
7
November, 2012
Many
New York area residents still faced gasoline lines and empty service
stations on Wednesday, while new government data confirmed that
Superstorm Sandy had not caused a severe shortage of gasoline - just
a dearth of power to pump it.
Commercial
stockpiles of gasoline in the U.S. central Atlantic, which covers
four states, including New York and New Jersey, slipped by only
310,000 barrels in the week to last Friday. That was a smaller
decline than some had expected, given strong demand.
"This
reflects the fact that most of the stocks stayed put because
electricity was out," said James Beck, lead analyst for the
Weekly Petroleum Status report issued by the Energy Information
Administration.
"Those
stocks are basically frozen. You can't get them in or out without
power," Beck added.
The
data covers oil terminals, refiners and depots, but not retail tanks,
many of which were shut down due to widespread power outages. Others
were pumped dry as consumers rushed to fill their tanks and gas cans
for portable generators.
The
1.33 percent weekly inventory decline backs up the notion that Sandy
all but froze the flow of fuel through New York Harbor, the biggest
and most important oil trading hub in the country. Gasoline stocks
were effectively stranded at refineries, two of which remain shut,
and the dozens of terminals on and near the harbor.
At
just over 200,000 barrels-per-day last week, gasoline imports to the
broader U.S. East Coast dropped to the lowest level since the
government started collecting that data in 2004.
The
drop in imports, by 300,000 bpd, corresponded to losing one tanker a
day, according to Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, LLC.
Equally
noteworthy was the glut of gasoline that formed in the U.S. Gulf
Coast last week, after Colonial Pipeline shut a major conduit between
Gulf refiners and the Northeast market. The Gulf Coast added 4.62
million barrels to its gasoline inventories last week.
The
data reflects a snapshot of inventory levels between Friday, Oct. 26,
just before the storm, and Friday, Nov. 2.
The
supply situation has somewhat improved since Friday after mainline
power returned to the Linden, New Jersey, fuel hub, which supplies
New York and northern New Jersey. Companies like Colonial Pipeline
and Nustar Energy have resumed service out of their facilities at
Linden and other locations within the New York Harbor energy network.
Only
eight of the 57 terminals in Sandy's path were still shut on
Wednesday, according to the federal Energy Department.
The
New York Harbor was open but under alert as a powerful nor'easter
storm menaced the Northeast with rain, sleet and snow. Wind gusts
could reach up to 40 miles per hour in New York on Wednesday,
according to a forecast from Thomson Reuters Weather Insight.
Five
oil tankers from as far away as Nigeria and Finland arrived in the
New York Harbor in the last day or so and were either anchored at the
port or moored at a terminal, according to live shipping data on
Reuters IMAP.
Still,
many gas stations were closed in the region on Wednesday and lines
were long at stations that had supplies, as snow came down.
The
Department of Energy said only 62 percent of service stations in the
New York city metropolis had stocks to sell on Wednesday, down from
66 percent the day before.
Of
five gas stations along a stretch of Rockaway Turnpike in Cedarhurst,
New York, just south of Kennedy Airport, none had gas Tuesday night.
When one station received a delivery Wednesday morning, people lined
up, holding umbrellas in one hand and gas cans in the other while the
nor'easter dumped snow on the city.
The
region's second-largest refinery was still shut on Wednesday.
Phillips 66 is assessing damage at its 238,000 barrels-per-day plant
in Linden, New Jersey, which was flooded after the storm.
Hess
Corp, a heavyweight in the Northeast's energy market, said on Tuesday
it was struggling to maintain adequate supplies at its New York
stations with its 70,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Port Reading,
New Jersey, still shut. Hess officials did not immediately respond to
an inquiry on Wednesday regarding supplies.
Many
Hess stations in the New York and New Jersey metro area were open,
using back-up generators, a company spokesperson said.
Where
some people saw shortages, others found opportunity. In Brooklyn's
Carroll Gardens neighborhood, a lone man stalked the night on
Tuesday, siphoning gasoline from parked cars into plastic containers,
according to a Reuters eyewitness.
It
was not clear if he left enough for the owners' morning commute
Nor’easter
prompts scores of flight cancellations for second time in 2 weeks
Weary
air travelers face another wave of groundings because of incoming
storm.
7
November, 2012
More
than 1,500 flights were delayed or canceled at New York City-area
airports on Wednesday, as a nor’easter descended on the already
storm beleaguered region.
In
addition to the 1200 flights canceled on Wednesday, 300 were already
scrubbed for Thursday at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports,
according to FlightAware.com.
More
than 500 flights headed to New York were also canceled as the storm
began dropping sleet and rain in the area.
On
most airlines, including Delta and American Airlines, passengers
needing to change their flights can do so once without a change fee.
JetBlue is allowing customers the chance to cancel or rebook.
The
nor’easter is shutting down flights for the second time in as many
weeks. A staggering 20,000 flights were canceled for several days
last week after Hurricane Sandy pounded the Eastern Seaboard,
according to industry experts.
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