Electricity was restored to Lower Manhattan Friday evening, but a continued fuel shortage is creating massive lines at gas stations in New York City and other parts of America’s East Coast. The shortage is testing the patience of motorists. A New York City policeman directs a motorist to the end the line at a gas station in Brooklyn. And quite a line it is. Drivers here are waiting five hours to get to the head of it. Police are on hand to maintain order and make certain no one cuts in line or exceeds the $50 purchase limit. That amounts to less than 50 liters. For taxi drivers, the time spent in line is time not earning fares. And rationing means they cannot drive as long as usual. Abdel Kadr says cabbies should be provided special access to gas, because they serve people. “When you stay in a fuel line for about six or seven hours, you’re exhausted, you’re falling asleep in the cab; you can’t perform the right way," he said. Many people are walking to gas stations with canisters. Some need fuel for a generator others for a motorcycle. Tony, a construction worker, needs to get his wife to the airport and says it is quicker to wait an hour on foot rather than five hours in a car. “And I do that a couple of times, I can get to the airport and back, real good. Then I come home and park till everything eases up," he said. Tony says people at this station have been calm. But flaring tempers have been reported elsewhere. Michael Perez is a construction worker in Manhattan. |