Industry officials first blamed the shortage on gas stations that lost power, but now say the proble

Though rationing that allowed private motorists to fill up only every other day seemed to help with gas lines, it didn t answer motorists questions about why they had been waiting for days in hourslong lines to fuel up. The confusion led some, like Angel Ventura, to panic.
Ventura, who drives a delivery van for a camera rental company, has taken to hunting for gasoline every time his gauge drops below a quarter of a tank. It makes me crazy, thinking I might hit empty and not be able to find it, he said.
As drivers waited on police-monitored lines, thousands more in the region got their power back for the first time since Sandy came ashore 12 days ago. More than 420,000 customers were still without power in New Jersey and the New York City area. President Barack Obama, who visited gulf of mexico cruise the battered Jersey coast two days after the storm, said he would survey the damage in New York next week from the storm, which the American Red Cross said will create its largest U.S. relief effort since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said one-third of the city s gas stations were open Friday, compared to 25 percent the day before, and cautioned, there s no guarantee that odd-even is going to make a big difference. His estimate was countered by the Energy Department, which said that more than 70 percent of the city s stations have gas available for sales.
Industry officials first blamed gulf of mexico cruise the shortage on gas stations that lost power, but now say the problem has shifted to supply terminals, which are either shut or operating at reduced capacity. Drivers gulf of mexico cruise are also quicker to top off tanks because they re afraid gasoline won t be available, AAA spokesman Michael Green said.
Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, said the densely populated New York-New Jersey area has fewer stations per capita than any other major metropolitan area, making the shortage an even bigger problem. He said rationing earlier might have helped in New York City.
Gasoline moves millions of New Yorkers, just as the subway does. Hundreds of thousands of people drive to work, especially from the outer boroughs, and taxis and delivery vans are part of every gridlocked intersection.
On Long Island, where odd-even rationing also began Friday, a spot check found shorter lines - 30 to 40 cars at most - and more stations with gas. In Brooklyn, car service owner Gary Lindenbaum said waits last week had been five or six hours.
Meanwhile, many officials were pointing to power companies as the culprit in the region s slow recovery. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for investigation of the region s utilities, criticizing them as unprepared and badly managed. On Friday, two congressmen from Long Island urged the federal government - even the military - to come in and help the Long Island Power Authority restore electricity.
When the lights went off in Baghdad and the lights went off in Kabul, it was the Army Corps of Engineers that went into Baghdad and Kabul to turn the lights back on, said Rep. Steve Israel. We don t need to turn the lights back on in Kabul and Baghdad. We need to turn the lights back on in Plainview and Great Neck and the south shore.
gulf of mexico cruise Some residents of Toms River, N.J., were given a precious hour Friday to see their storm-wrecked houses for the first time and grab warm-weather clothing, important pictures - whatever belongings they could. When Steve Dabern saw his flooded house, the floor was torn in pieces, the refrigerator was on its side and the kitchen furniture was in the living room.
At St. Mary s Children s Hospital in Queens, workers who visit 4,000 sick children have been getting up as early as 2 a.m. to get on gas lines, said chief administrative officer Hope Mavaro Iliceto. Some have run out of fuel while waiting in line, she said.
At the Brooklyn gas station, Ruben Quinonez and Edgar Luna were in the delivery truck they drive for a bakery in Mahopac, north of the city. They normally work from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., making deliveries in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but every day since the storm they have added a long wait in a gas line.
Fitzgerald reported from White Plains, N.Y. Associated Press writers gulf of mexico cruise Frank Eltman in North Massapequa, Paul Harloff, Meghan Barr, David B. Caruso, Jennifer Peltz, Colleen Long and Karen Matthews in New York, Wayne Parry in Toms River, N.J., Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J., and Brett Zongker and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.