Hurricane Sandy: Greetings from Gas Starved NJ‏

Hi Fernando,

I’ve read your book
a few times and I actively read your blog for advice and tips and how
to be better prepared for disasters both natural and man made.  Before I
go further let me give you some background on me.  I live right next to
NYC in NJ.  I’ve lived here all my life and through Sept 11th, as well
as Hurricane Irene last year.  So far this is the worst disaster I have
seen here and what we have experienced in North Jersey/NYC is nothing
compared to South Jersey.  In light of all this, I want to give you an
up close and personal view of what it is like living in a disaster area
right now.  Hopefully others will not need to live through what I am
living through.

All of your advice is turning out to be spot on with regards to
weapons, riot-like conditions, lack of electricity, lack of modern
communications (i.e. cellphone service) and the overall breakdown in
society.  Its funny how people become crazy when the electricity is off
even though many didn’t have electricity a century ago.  The major
issues we are facing aren’t so much related to food or water (yet),
being that our water supply for the most part is unaffected by the storm
surge.

The biggest issue here is gas.  After Hurricane Irene many people
bought generators but never stockpiled gasoline to fuel those
generators.  Most of our gas stations have been pumped dry and require
police presence to break up fights and to keep some semblance of order
here.  And for the stations that do still have gas the wait time is in
the hours to get gas.  To give you more information on the gas supply
chain for the area, there are refineries literally 20 minutes away near
the ports in Newark and Elizabeth; so gas supplies were never an issue.

Commuting is a nightmare right now because some roads are closed down
and many don’t have working traffic lights on them so the police have
blocked off intersections, effectively increasing commute times and
burning away more of the gas in people’s cars.

I filled my tank before the storm hit so I am ok but I am doubtful I
will be able to gas back up until sometime next week at best.  One thing
I am looking to invest in is a generator that can also run on propane
and/or natural gas to bypass the gasoline supply chain.  While I am
doing my own research into alternative fuel supplies, I feel that
everyone that reads your blog would benefit greatly from an article
discussing ways to survive without gasoline or diesel.

Adam in NJ

Hi Adam,

Thanks for your email. Being without electric power never bothered me
as much as being without water. That worried me dearly until we had
running tap water again (even if that tap water had to be filtered too).

Considering that most people don’t stock up on any emergency food or
water stash, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see that they don’t stock up
gas for their generators. Keeping a generator without fuel is like
having a gun with no ammo.

One thing to look into is public transportation. We’re so used to
using our vehicles that we sometimes overlook how convenient and cheap
it can be on occasions. For years I used buses and train in spite of
having a car, just because it was safer at times (avoiding carjacking)
and to save on gas.

These post-Sandy days are times to stay put and preserve as much
resources as possible until things get back to normal. There’s not much
people can do now if they didn’t prepare ahead of time. It´s getting
colder too so that will be an issue. Sounds silly but most people have
no idea of what to do to stay warm, they just know how to switch the
thermostat on high and sit back to watch TV. I went camping last weekend
with my son, today its snowing on that same forest so while not under
0ºC, it was pretty cold. Things like thermal underwear and polar fleece
combined with a good jacket and wool cap goes a long way into keeping
you warm. Reducing the living space into just living in a room where you
may have a kerosene heater or fireplace helps too.

You need to have plans A, B and C for your essentials, such as
keeping yourself warm and cooking. When our burner broke down last
winter we used electric heaters for a couple days, we all slept in the
same room to stay warm, also keeping a couple large bottles of natural
gas both for cooking and heating as well as some wood for the fireplace.
That gives you options, alternatives in case one option goes down. Its
also nice to keep logistics simple. One of the things I’d like to do
eventually is have a diesel vehicle that during an emergency could use
the same fuel used for heating the house, tap into that 1200L  fuel tank
if needed.

Regarding generators, a small, quality generator may not light up your entire house but it does use less fuel and can be altered depending on what you need to run.

Stay safe!

FerFAL

2013-03-12 03:00:48

Source: http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2012/11/hurricane-sandy-greetings-from-gas.html