Customers Wait Hours for Gas at West Hempstead, Lynbrook Stations

UPDATE (8:25 p.m. Nov. 2) The West Hempstead Gulf station on Nassau Boulevard, across from Halls Pond Park is open. The line is backed up all the way to West Hempstead Middle School.

UPDATE (5:15 p.m. Nov. 2) The Gulf station in Lynbrook at the intersection of Hempstead, Lakeview and Franklin avenues and Hendrickson Road ("Little Five Corners") has opened after its power was restored.

Power was also restored to the Gulf across from Halls Pond Park in West Hempstead, but police were turning customers away and told them a technician needs to conduct an inspection before the station can sell again. They told customers it shoud open Saturday morning. 

-Original Story-

A line of cars stretched down Eagle Avenue, from Hempstead Avenue in West Hempstead to Woodfield Road in Lakeview Friday morning as drivers waited to fuel up at one of the few area pumps that had both gas and electricity to power its bumps.

The BP on the corner of Woodfield Road and Eagle Avenue was slammed with customers. Dozens of cars and people waiting in the parking lot with containers in their hands, waited for hours to get some fuel to power themselves through the days ahead as the neighborhood continues to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

The owner of the gas station imposed a $25 gas limit for cars, $10 for containers, and had to break up atleast one verbal altercation that broke out between a male and female customer while Patch was at the scene Friday afternoon.

One Uniondale man said it took him about an hour to get to the Lakeview station, where he had been waiting since 10 a.m. It was nearly 2 p.m. and he still had about 30 customers in front of him.

Most of the gas stations in West Hempstead, Malverne and Lynbrook had either exhausted their supply of gas by Friday afternoon or they didn't have electricity to turn on their pumps. The Gulf station across from Cross Island Fruits in Lynbrook had gas but no power. This was also the case for the USA station on Hempstead Avenue in Malverne, but around noon a tanker arrived to pump the gasoline out of the tanks to bring it to a station in Central Islip that did have the power to distribute it.

The Gulf station on Ocean Avenue in Lynbrook went through its supply Thursday night and was closed Friday. The OK Petroleum on Westminster Road in West Hempstead had nothing left. The USA station on Hempstead Avenue in West Hempstead had exhausted its supply Thursday. The owner there told Patch that he might get another delivery Saturday. 

The Hess on Hempstead Turnpike had only diesel left as of Friday afternoon. An employee there said she expects another delivery to come either atmidnight or later in the day Saturday.

Majid Hafeze, the owner of the Gulf station across from Halls Pond Park in West Hempstead, told Patch that he had gas there but no power to operate the pumps. However, he also owns the station on the corner of Nassau Boulevard and Hempstead Turnpike, which was up and running Friday afternoon.

"We got power three days after the storm, but our system was fried," he said. "We opened up last night but had a power surge that shut us down."

Hafeze was able to re-open the Mobile station around 11 a.m. As of 2:30 p.m. he had regular gas and was not imposing any limits on customers. The line stretched from Hempstead Turnpike to Roosevelt Boulevard

"We've been constantly flooded with customers, people fighting. [I'm] trying to keep order," he said, adding that local police and firefighters were there earlier in the day to assist him but had to leave. "There's a lot of things going on so they couldnt stay at one locations for too long."

Hafeze expected to run out of gas by 4:30 p.m. He was working with the supply he had received prior to the storm and didn't know when he would get another delivery.

"Whenever it comes in, it comes in," he added.

Where were you able to get gas in the area? Have you limited your driving as a result of the shortage? Let us know.