Business & Tech

The Waiting Game: Gas Hysteria Continues Sunday, Monday

Drivers wait as long as 12 hours at gas stations in West Hempstead, Malverne and Lynbrook.

To find out the gas status of a station in Malverne, West Hempstead and Lynbrook, click here.

Two lines of cars stretched down Nassau Boulevard in West Hempstead Sunday, one coming from the south and the other from the north.

On one end, a driver had been waiting outside the Gulf station across from Halls Pond Park since 5:30 a.m. It was going on 5 p.m.

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Down the block, another driver had been parked on a line for the Mobil station on the corner of Nassau Boulevard and Hempstead Turnpike for nine hours.

In both cases, the gas stations were closed. They had sold out of gas and there was no telling when the next delivery would be coming. When Patch informed both customers that there were two nearby stations open -- one on the other end of West Hempstead, on Westminster Road and Woodfield Road, and the other across the border on Hempstead Avenue in Malverne -- they weren't willing to give up their place in line to go wait on another that stretched for several blocks.

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And at Hess on Hempstead Turnpike in West Hempstead, there was also a small crowd of people camped out on the sidewalk with canisters, waiting for the station's next delivery, whenever that may come.

The gas crisis on Long Island in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is testing residents' patience and sanity. 

Over the past three days, hundreds of cars and customers with canisters in hand have been waiting on gas lines for hours to fuel up at whatever station in the neighborhood happens to have both gas and the electricity to power its pumps.

For the most part, the crowds have remained civil. We witnessed one verbal spat Friday at the BP in Lakeview, but the employees quickly revolved the matter. (Nassau County Auxiliary and village police have also been stationed at some of the pumps at times to maintain order.)

Two Malverne cops were stationed near the Gulf station on the corner of Hempstead Avenue and Franklin Avenue, Lynbrook's "Little Five Corners," where a line of cars stretched all the way to Rider Avenue in Malverne for most of the day. The station had exhausted its supply of gas by the evening.

The OK Petroleum in West Hempstead, which ran out of fuel Friday, had received a new shipment Sunday and was thus, slammed with customers.

The USA station on Hempstead Avenue in Malverne, across from Crossroads Farm, finally had its power restored Sunday. Starting in the morning and well into the night, customers were fueling up their cars and canisters. The line stretched across the Southern State Parkway overpass to Cornwell Avenue Elementary School in West Hempstead. When we asked the owner when he would run out, he indicated that he had an ample supply.

And although the BP in Lakeview was closed, the owner was expecting another delivery at some point Sunday night, and suggested that the gas hysteria would be over soon.

Were you able to get gas this weekend? Where did you go? How long did you wait? Tell us in the comments section below.


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