Fuel crisis exacerbating in storm-hit US East Coast

People in the storm-hit areas of the US East Coast, particularly in New York, are facing an exacerbating fuel crisis several days after the super-storm Sandy battered the region, Press TV reports.

Infuriated drivers stay in mile-long gas lines in New York’s Staten Island borough as promises of new fuel supplies and open pipelines don’t seem to have made it so far to the streets since the Monday storm.

Federal authorities say they are opening up pipelines to make fuel more accessible immediately but many people who have stayed in the gas lines for several hours say they have seen no change.

There is heavy police presence at the few open gas stations, while others in the area are still shut down.

The fuel shortage has led to street fights and break-ins, and reports of gas siphoning and theft continue to circulate.

“People are incredibly desperate… People are going into other people’s cars in the middle of the night and suck in their gas and spill it into their own. They want to take the gas from themselves, because they can’t get it from the station,” said a Staten Island resident.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced late Friday that military fuel trucks would be dispatched to each borough but the residents say the rationing of one truck per borough does not suffice to soothe the fears of an extended gas crisis in the area.

On Friday, the aggravating fuel crisis in New Jersey prompted the state’s governor to implement gasoline rationing for motorists in 12 counties across the state.

The hybrid super-storm Sandy slammed into the East Coast on Monday killing 103 people in the United States, including 41 in New York City with half of them in Staten Island.

The economic losses inflicted by the huge storm have been estimated to be 50 billion US dollars, according to Moody’s Analytics.