Staten Island residents stand in line for fuel at a gas station on November 2, 2012 in the Staten Island borough of New York City. AFP
NEW YORK – Trucks with free petrol were finally meant to bring relief to desperate New Yorkers on Saturday, but at one emergency station besieged by motorists the promised fuel never even came.
This meant a cruelly long wait for hundreds of drivers and people simply queuing up on foot with jerry cans at a National Guard armory in the Bronx.
With their coats pulled tight against the growing cold, or sitting with the windows up in their cars, the crowd waited for hours at one of five impromptu filling stations that city officials had earlier promoted as a quick solution to the mounting fuel crisis left by superstorm Sandy.
Then they waited some more.
Gary Vicuna was at the head of the line of pedestrians. “I saw it on the Bronx (TV) channel and I came here as soon as I could. I arrived at about 10 am,” he said, seemingly overcome with stress.
He had just enough time to drink a tea before leaving and had eaten nothing since. Now he tried waiting calmly behind the barrier. And waiting.
There were about 200 other pedestrians in line for their promised free-of-charge 10 gallons at the cavernous brick armory building.
The queue for cars was even longer, more than a mile long, according to Lieutenant Colonel James Freehart, who was with the National Guard team meant to distribute the free fuel.
Several soldiers guarded the entrance to the building and police cars blocked the road. There have been fights and flaring tempers at city gas stations, so the authorities were taking no chances during the handout.
Except that the handout never came. Finally, the National Guard and police began telling people to leave. The truck never showed up and no one seemed to know why.
“It is unacceptable,” said Jamie Williams, who was pushing a cart with three empty red cans.
“We stand on line for hours. I am frozen and all of a sudden all these police cars arrived, as if they wanted to prevent a riot. Who can we blame? Not the police officers.”
Afiyah Muhammad, 41, went back to her car in misery.
“As soon as I knew, I got here,” she said, showing the empty gauge on her gas tank. “This is a mess, this is horrible.”
Some in the crowd could not contain their anger.
Chris Edmin told a government representative: “It’s not just the fact that we are not getting any gas, but the way we were dismissed. It is a lack of concern for the community, the final straw.”