USA Today: 2K fears might drive gasoline shortage
usatoday.com
Millions of drivers will top off their gasoline tanks in a last-minute year
2000 rush that might make lines at ATM machines and supermarket
checkouts seem tame by comparison.
"I'm not pulling money out of the bank. I'm not getting out of the (stock)
market," says Eloise Rivers of Toledo, Ohio. "(But) when my tank gets
below half, I'll fill up."
People can stock up on cash, food, batteries and water over days or
weeks prior to Jan. 1, 2000. But for the average person, there is no safe
way to stockpile gasoline. The rush to fill up will occur mostly Dec.
30-31, because most drivers won't risk facing Y2K with their gas gauges
on empty.
Some stations - perhaps many - could run dry for hours to days.
Here's why: In normal times, the nation's 100,000 to 125,000 tank trucks
are on the road an average of 20 hours a day hauling 418 million gallons
of gasoline and fuel oil daily. A two-day topping-off party at the
nation's 180,000 service stations could stretch trucks and drivers thin.
Stations could start running out as early as New Year's Eve, experts say.
Others might run out after the rush in the early days of 2000 before
trucks arrive to replenish.
[...]
Gasoline cans present another wild card. There are an estimated 83
million cans in the USA, which often are ignored until lawn-mowing
season. Blitz USA, which says it's the nation's largest maker of plastic
gasoline cans, declined to release specific sales data. But company officer
Chuck Craig says Blitz has had much higher demand in what is normally
the slow season.
If a significant percentage of gasoline cans, old and new, are filled the
last week of December, it would be enough to drive demand well above
forecasts.
Gasoline stored inside houses and garages also represents a serious
safety threat. Firefighters in Los Ranchos, N.M., forced a man to remove
three 55-gallon drums of diesel and gasoline that they said could have
destroyed a city block.
[...] |
