News

In hopes for gas, drivers get a tip and wait in Calverton

MICHAEL WHITE PHOTO | Patty Sullivan waited and knitted in her Dodge Durango Friday morning for gas along with Judy Torrieri, who was informing people on line that there was no gas at the Hess station.

Patty Sullivan sat in her Dodge Durango Friday morning in one of more than 40 cars stranded on a line to nowhere outside a Hess Gas Station on Edwards Avenue in Calverton.

There was no gas to be pumped. Only a hopeful delivery that may come later in the afternoon.

So she waited.

To pass the time, she knitted.

“I’m waiting because I need it,” she said.

A nurse, Ms. Sullivan said she has to work this weekend, which includes traveling to Medford to care for a patient who’s on a ventilator.

“If I wasn’t working over the weekend I could just stay home,” she said.

As the gas shortage becomes more dire in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, residents running low on fuel have taken to staking out gas stations and hoping for a delivery.

At the Hess Station, Judy Torrieri, who lives nearby in Calverton, said her husband received a tip Thursday night that the Hess station would be receiving a gas shipment at 11 a.m. the next day. That didn’t happen. But she was hopeful it would arrive in the afternoon.

An attendant at the station, Qamara, spoke by phone to a New Jersey transfer company — in the presence of a reporter — and was told he may get a delivery around 2 p.m.

“But I don’t know,” he said, cautioning that the delivery may not come as expected.

Ms. Torrieri was parked at the front of the line Friday with her husband. She was walking up and down the line informing drivers that the station had no gas, and that they were simply waiting and hoping for some to be delivered.

“You can drive around and waste your gas or you can get a tip and just wait,” Ms. Torrieri said.

She also warned people to put a lock on their gas caps, if possible.

“People don’t know how to adapt without the luxuries they’re used to,” she said. “They’re willing to go out and get what they need and siphon out your gas. Any means necessary.”

[email protected]