Stories from post-storm New York

Tempers will be fraying and people will be at the end of their tether and becoming desperate as they wait for help and struggle to get the basics of life. Imagine what it will be like when everything grinds to a halt and there is no help to be had.

Post-storm anger grows, especially outside Manhattan

Frustration grew for superstorm Sandy's victims in the U.S. Northeast on Friday, many of whom were left with no power, no gasoline and little information about when their shattered lives might return to normal.

Reuters,

2 November, 2012

While Manhattan prepared to host the annual New York City Marathon on Sunday, acute gasoline shortages in the city's storm-battered outer boroughs and New Jersey led to long lines and short tempers.

Tankers finally began entering New York Harbor on Thursday, and a tanker carrying 2 million barrels of gasoline arrived at 2 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Sandy, which brought a record storm surge to coastal areas, killed at least 102 people after slamming into the U.S. Northeast on Monday. Forty-one died in New York City, about half of them in Staten Island, which was overrun by a wall of water.

Starting before dawn on Friday, long lines of cars snaked around gasoline stations around the area in scenes reminiscent of the energy shortage of the 1970s.

"The police are stopping people who are trying to cut in the line," said Steven Golub, 53, an attorney who waited in line for hours at a Manhattan gas station. "There's no gas anywhere else. There was a guy with diplomatic plates who tried to cut in the line and one of the cab drivers complained so the police actually stopped him."

Police were in place at many spots to keep the peace between furious, frustrated drivers. In one instance, a man who attempted to cut in line was charged with threatening another driver with a gun on Thursday in the borough of Queens.

"When people cut the line, people are about to stone them," said Chris Allegretta, who had stood in line for 90 minutes with a gas can at a filling station in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

Less than 40 percent of all gas stations in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey operated on Thursday [ID:nL1E8M1IXF] because of a combination of power outages and constricted supplies after the storm devastated the energy industry's ability to move fuel into and around the New York City region.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator Richard Serino planned to visit Staten Island on Friday amid angry claims by some survivors that the borough had been ignored.

'THEY FORGOT ABOUT US'

President Barack Obama, locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, has so far received praise for his handling of storm relief. But scenes of angry storm victims could affect the U.S. political campaign with Election Day four days away.

"They forgot about us," said Theresa Connor, 42, describing her Staten Island neighborhood as having been "annihilated." "And Bloomberg said New York is fine. The marathon is on," she said, referring to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Rising seawater flooded lower Manhattan, much of which still lacked power and subway service on Friday, while midtown and uptown Manhattan were close to normal.

Fury has been escalating throughout New York at Bloomberg's decision to proceed with the marathon on Sunday, vowing the event - which attracts more than 40,000 runners - would not divert any resources storm victims.

"I just walked past four huge generators. Those could be put to use for people who need them," said Marjorie Dial, a tourist from Oregon who was shocked to see the generators in Central Park, where the marathon finishes. "What they've discovered on Staten Island should have been the tipping point - the bodies."

New York City Councilman James Oddo said on his Twitter account: "If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon, I will scream."

More than 3.7 million homes and businesses along the U.S. East Coast remained without power on Friday.

While power was expected to be returned throughout Manhattan by Saturday, it could be another week or more in suburbs and more distant towns along the coast.

Cuomo directed the New York National Guard to deploy an additional 600 troops to help restore the grid in Westchester and Rockland counties, suburbs north of New York City.

Forecasts for colder temperatures only added to the tension, since many in New Jersey and elsewhere have been using fuel-powered generators to run lights and heaters while waiting for utilities to repair downed power lines.

Disaster modeling company Eqecat estimated Sandy caused up to $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses, double its previous forecast. [ID:nL1E8M13J3] New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimated economic losses of $15 billion to $18 billion in New York state alone.

At the high end of the range, Sandy would rank as the fourth costliest U.S. catastrophe, according to the Insurance Information Institute, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the United States with 80-mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades.

Flared Tempers Over Flared Tempers Over Gasoline Lines Prompt Supply Waivers

President Barack Obama and the governors of New York and New Jersey took steps to ease the misery of motorists waiting in miles-long lines for gasoline after Hurricane Sandy

Bloomberg,

2 November, 2012

The Obama administration said today that it waived the Jones Act, which requires ships moving goods between U.S. ports to use U.S.-flag vessels. The action, which applies only to refined products, will increase the number of tankers available to transport fuel from Gulf Coast refineries to the East Coast.

In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie suspended restrictions on out-of-state fuel purchases, and said the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will deliver generators to filling stations shut by power outages. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo waived taxes and regulations to accommodate more fuel tankers and process them more quickly.

“People can’t get gas and it’s increased the stress level all throughout the region,” Cuomo, a 54-year-old Democrat, said at a press conference today. “There should be a real change in the condition and people should see it quickly.”

Tempers in New Jersey and New York have flared over days of power outages and difficulties buying gasoline for vehicles and portable electric generators. Utilities are under pressure from state officials and residents to restore service faster.

One-Third

About 1.4 million customers in New Jersey, more than a third of homes and businesses, remain without electricity. About 300,000 restorations were made today, and the state was setting up temporary housing for 8,000 out-of-state utility workers, Christie told reporters in Brick, New Jersey.

Only 25 percent of gasoline stations north of Interstate 195, which runs from Mercer to Monmouth counties through the center of the state, are operating, Christie said.

``I'm concerned and frustrated too,'' Christie said. ``In the next 24 to 48 hours I think we're going to start to see things getting better.''

Hess Corp. (HES) and Gulf Oil LP have agreed to begin delivering more gasoline to New Jersey retailers, he said. Christie also said that his administration issued subpoenas to 65 businesses, including those that sell fuel and generators, after receiving more than 500 consumer complaints about price gouging.

Sandy’s destruction has left 13 Jerseyans dead. At least three were related to the use of generators, said Mary Goepfert, spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management.

New Playbooks

Christie, a first-term Republican, said 12 other governors agreed this week to send workers to New Jersey to help restore power. He said he also told utility chief executive officers yesterday that they need to speed repairs.

“I made it clear to them that whatever playbooks they had were to be thrown out because we’ve never faced anything like this before,” Christie, 50, said yesterday in Moonachie, which had to be evacuated after a tidal surge from the Hackensack River flooded the Bergen County town.

Sandy’s winds and floods blacked out about two-thirds of New Jersey and crippled the region’s transit system. It also flooded fuel terminals, curbed deliveries and left many filling stations in the dark and unable to run pumps.

Cuomo said he expects most people in his state to have power back by the end of the weekend. Gasoline supplies that have dwindled should come back now that the U.S. Coast Guard has reopened the Port of New York, he said.

Two million gallons (7.6 million liters) of gasoline arrived in Newburgh, New York, last night, Cuomo said.

Harbor Open

The fuel shortage resulted from ports being shuttered because officials feared shipping containers blown into the water by Sandy would damage ships moving through the water, Cuomo said. Some shipping lanes were reopened in New York’s harbor yesterday. Most of the terminals that were knocked out, including the Port Jefferson terminal on Long Island, were back online with generators.

“We understand why there was a shortage, and the harbor is now open,” Cuomo said.

Ships permitted to travel between U.S. ports under the 1920 Jones Act are more expensive because they have to be built, owned and crewed in the country, said Urs Dur, an analyst at Clarkson Clarkson Capital Markets in New York. Allowing foreign ships to carry fuel within the U.S. will temporarily help relieve of a shortage of U.S.-flagged vessels.

Gas Flow

The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for other ways to speed up the flow of gasoline into the region, including allowing barges to directly pump fuel into trucks rather than first offloading into holding tanks, Rear Admiral Daniel Abel said at Cuomo’s press conference.

“Today we’re turning the tide,” Abel said. “There’s no question the supply of fuel is going to increase in New York harbor.”

About 1.3 million customers in New York, or 14 percent of the state, were without power as of this morning, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Coney Island Avenue, a main artery in Brooklyn, was overwhelmed today with cars seeking gasoline. The line for a Hess station stretched from Church Avenue to 18th Avenue. There was also a line of about 200 people waiting with their own cans -- even though the station was out of fuel. People said they were waiting for when the gas truck arrived.

Jean Jean-Laurent, 56, of Queens, said he never saw anything like this in his 27 years as a car-service driver. He said he waited two hours yesterday and was running low. “I was thinking today would be better but it isn’t,” he said.

Backup Power

The shortage led New Jersey state Senator Barbara Buono, a Metuchen Democrat, and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, a Republican from Middletown, to propose legislation that would require all filling stations to be equipped with generators to keep pumps running during power outages. Florida has such a requirement, Buono said in a statement today.

“Frustrated motorists shouldn’t have to wait in lines a hundred cars long,” Buono said. “It isn’t just a matter of having enough gas to get to the store or to get to work when businesses reopen. It’s a matter of public safety and health for people who need gas to keep their own generators going.”

Among the state’s 13 Sandy-related deaths, two teenage sisters were killed in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, by carbon-monoxide poisoning caused by the improper use of a generator. Another probable generator-related death was in Middlesex County, Goepfert said.

Emergency Delivery

Jersey Central Power & Light Co. had the biggest number of New Jersey customers, 710,000, without electricity. Its parent company, FirstEnergy Corp. (FE), made a $100,000 donation to the Jersey Coast chapter of the American Red Cross, according to a FirstEnergy news release.

New Jersey also was preparing for delivery today of more than 500,000 gallons of diesel fuel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Goepfert said. That supply will be directed to hospital generators and emergency equipment on the ground.

Jill Trotta, 47, a home health-care worker from Lakehurst, New Jersey, said she went to three filling stations today that were either out of gas or power before she found one with six pumps and a ten-minute line. People are getting edgier as the situation drags into its fourth day, Trotta said. She said she saw people pushing and shoving on line earlier after someone ran out of gas while waiting.

“We’ve heard there are gas shortages so people are just trying to get whatever they can from somewhere,” she said as she waited in her gray Dodge Durango with several $20 bills crumpled up in her hand. “People are starting to go nuts. They’re going nuts and they’re afraid there won’t be any gas.”

I would have expected RT to be pretty sharp with this, but they are showing them selves to be behind with the eight ball on this one.

New Jersey kicks out Sandy volunteers because they aren’t unionized

Utility workers from across the US are descending on the Northeastern states left ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, but some volunteers making the trek are being told they can’t pitch in since they don’t belong to a union.

RT,

2 November, 2012

According to a report published late Thursday by WAFF News out of Seaside Heights, crews coming to assist all the way from Alabama’s Decatur Utilities were turned away because they aren’t unionized, despite making the 800-mile jaunt to lend a hand.

WAFF quotes Decatur worker Derrick Moore, who tells the network that him and his colleagues “are frustrated being told, in essence, ‘thanks, but no thanks.’”

Left with nothing to do in New Jersey, Moore and other members of the Decatur team are reportedly waiting in Roanaoke, Virginia to see if Seaside Heights authorities will change their mind. Meanwhile, though, millions of residents up and down the East Coast remain without power after a powerful tropical storm downed power lines and flooded streets from North Carolina to New England. 

According to the latest figures available early Friday, the death toll from the frankenstorm may already be close to hitting 100, and recovery efforts are expected to continue for weeks, if not months. At the same time, though, things may be off to a slower start in New Jersey if nonunionized volunteers are refused any further.

Bill Yell, a spokesman for Alabama’s Huntsville Utilities, tells AL.com that nine of his employees are currently helping with recovery from the storm, but not in New Jersey where he claims they were told they weren’t needed. Instead, his crew of unionized workers has been volunteering their services with Long Island Power Authority in New York.

According to ABC News, more than 40,000 workers from utility companies across 49 states have been dispatched to the East Coast to aid in recovery efforts, with the US Air Force now assisting by moving dozens of utility vehicles onboard cargo planes.

On Thursday, forecasting firm Eqecat estimated the damage from the storm to be close to $50 billion.