Hoarders blamed for aggravating run on fuel

A motorist posted to Facebook a picture of a person filling a huge gas container at a North Side 7-11 Sunday Sept. 3, 2017. A motorist posted to Facebook a picture of a person filling a huge gas container at a North Side 7-11 Sunday Sept. 3, 2017. Photo: Courtesy Photo: Courtesy Image 1 of / 54 Caption Close Hoarders blamed for aggravating run on fuel 1 / 54 Back to Gallery

Hundreds of gas stations in San Antonio are still without fuel to pump in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Common sights in the city over the Labor Day weekend include gas stations with bags on the pumps and signs with the words “Sold Out.”

At stations with gas, long lines wrapped around city blocks.

For those who drive for a living, the closed pumps and long lines can mean days without work.

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About one quarter of oil refining capacity on the Gulf coast was shut down because of the storm, but the supply situation worsened with the run on gasoline, produced by panic and hoarding, experts and city officials said.

Without fuel, the drivers at County Line Cabs are all sitting at home, Charles Charles, manager of the Boerne-based taxi company, said.

“We are not taking any new passengers. We are not doing any booking,” Charles said.

The company normally fields a roster of 27 vehicles. Only two currently have fuel, and these are being saved to transport people with medical emergencies, Charles said.

He said he is considering whether to close up shop until gas returns.

At Poppy’s Pizza, drivers have not had enough gas to get to work, let alone get the pies to customers.

“It’s made it a little harder to deliver,” Poppy’s Pizza manager Geoffrey Handler said.

The same has been true at Wok on Wheels, which delivers throughout the North East side.

“Our drivers have had a hard time finding gas,” said Nicole Thompson, a Wok on Wheels driver and cashier.

A few drivers could not come to work, Thompson said, and she and her husband wouldn’t have made it to their jobs if he hadn’t left at 5 a.m. to get gas.

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In his latest post on social media Sunday night, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the city has asked the state to provide more frequent updates to the public and that as much as he would like to impose restrictions on purchasing gas, that authority lies with the state government.

"San Antonio, I feel your frustrations and share them with you," the mayor wrote on Facebook. "Our city's market is being prioritized, and gas is being delivered daily and in greater quantities than usual. But demand has not decreased, with our city consuming more fuel than average largely due to panic and hoarding."

The mayor urged residents to take alternative transportation, carpool or work from home until distribution of fuel normalizes.

In a post on Saturday the mayor said gas purchases in San Antonio are 2.5 times the normal rate and said citizens were hoarding fuel. In other statements, he noted city officials reported people filling up 55-gallon drums.

“If we all work on fueling as needed and not over-consuming, we will expedite our return to normal,” Nirenberg wrote.

The mayor also posted a clip of a bank run from the movie classic, “It's a Wonderful Life.”

Refineries along the coast shut down in advance of Harvey, but experts said the fuel supply should return to normal soon. Karr Ingham, an oil and gas economist based in Amarillo, said it will take the industry two to three weeks to get everything running smoothly again.

Gas prices increased by an average of four cents a gallon nationwide after the storm, AAA spokeswoman Jeanette Casselano said in a release.

According to AAA, the average price for a gallon regular unleaded in San Antonio on Sunday should be $2.39.

Supply trucks are now bringing gas from Corpus Christi and other refineries, according to the Mayor’s office.

Drivers in need of fuel have turned to apps such as gasbuddy. The app, as of Sunday afternoon, reported more 400 stations without fuel, compared to slightly less than 200 stations with fuel.

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The Shell station at Olmos park ran out of gas late Friday afternoon. A delivery truck was supposed to come that day with 3,000 or so gallons, but when it didn’t, people rushed to the pump. They created a line backing up all four arms of the nearby roundabout, manager Aamir Khan recalled.

In the days since, Khan said he gets around 500 calls a day from people who want to know if he has gas. Sometimes they want to complain when he says he doesn’t, but Khan said he knows there is nothing he can do.

“I'm not listening to them,” Khan said. “I don’t have time for that. I'm just answering the call and telling them I'm out of gas.”

As he spoke, two cars drove past his pumps, which were wrapped in yellow caution tape, before driving off again.

For tow truck companies, the fuel shortage means an upsurge in deliveries of cans of fuel to drivers who have run out. Barbara Perales of New Era Towing said the company received 244 calls for fuel delivery Saturday. As of mid-morning Sunday, the company had received 45 calls, she said.

Her company also had to tow a driver who ran out of gas on U.S. 90. The driver said he had been stuck there for three hours, Perales said. After getting towed to the gas station, he was allowed to cut in line to get gas.

RELATED: Gas prices surged higher Friday as drivers rushed to fill their tanks

Perales waited in line for gas as she spoke. She blamed hoarders for the shortage and said she had limited her personal driving to save gas.

“People get scared, they get shocked,” Perales said. “When you have people who are greedy and filling up with those big containers, then it limits the amount of fuel that other people have.”

Despite the limited supply of drivers and fuel, numerous restaurants said they will continue to deliver throughout Labor Day weekend.

“It’s our living,” Thompson at Wok on Wheels said. “We have a job to do.”

jlawrence@express-news.net