New York motorists can buy gasoline for their cars
on an odd-even numbering system beginning Friday, as fuel shortages
continued in storm damaged areas, a week after Hurricane Sandy,
authorities said Thursday.
A system based on odd and even numbers on license plates began
last week in New Jersey, forcing drivers to line up for hours after
Sandy knocked out power to residential areas as well as petrol
stations.
Some stations ran out of fuel despite Federal Emergency Management
Agency efforts to bring in petrol tankers.
Battered areas in the region suffered new misery when an early
winter storm dumped up to 12 cm of snow Wednesday across the
north-eastern United States, from Pennsylvania to Boston. Much of the
snow in New York City melted by dawn Thursday.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the odd-even system for
the city's boroughs while Gov. Andrew Cuomo said storm Athena,
which hit the region Wednesday with heavy rain and snow, caused more
power outages in small pockets. Some blacked out areas just had power
restored before Wednesday night's outages.
Cuomo said there were 108,000 Nassau County customers in Long
Island, 79,000 customers in Suffolk County and 23,000 in Queens, a
New York City borough.
"Last night was half a step back in Nassau and Suffolk with an
increase in number of people who lost power," Cuomo said. "Progress
is slow because in impacted areas you have to go building by
building, because you have to find out what buildings can take the
power. That's a labor-intensive activity."
AccuWeather forecasters said the northeastern U.S. expected milder
weather in coming days, with temperatures above 12 degrees through
the middle of next week.
