I took Hurricane Sandy very lightly as the forecast reached me that Friday night, right into Saturday and even Sunday night's dinner out at East Bistro, 6-7 miles away from home. After dinner, I relaxed with a Bolivar cigar, sitting back from a normal meal, just watching how the streets had become scarce, left only with people like myself (not worried about the forecast) or scurrying home. The sky had blocked even the moon's reflection onto the streets and sidewalks. The Monday morning of October 29th, 2012 I was told not to go to work and woke up to mild winds and rain. That evening Hurricane Sandy hit and knocked on my house bumping and rattling, but nothing major. Tuesday, some of the aftermath had hit the news resulting in power lost, damaged property, many destroyed homes and 30 reported deaths. The death toll would eventually reach 40 and the actual picture of those in New Jersey, Staten Island, Coney Island, the Rockaways, especially those closest to the coastline and even the effect on the flooded New York City Subway system was a display of what Sandy caused.
On Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 (Halloween), the Tri-state was still recovering from this mild spurt of "Mother Nature's Frankenstorm". I was driving in the Eastside of Manhattan with the extra built up traffic lined for blocks from those trying to get Downtown from the upper 70s to 80s. I thought nothing of this as I had an appointment Uptown and headed home southward.
What I didn't know at the time was I was wasting gas. I never fill up until the arm in the fuel meter reaches rock bottom, close to empty. This is not a habit fruitful on my part because on Thursday, as my tank dropped below a quarter tank of gasoline, the news had announced gas stations everywhere in New Jersey and New York had closed. There is now a gas shortage due to power failure and disruption to the gasoline distribution. This gas shortage did not impact until the next two days when you could see 50 cars lined up around the block or down the street waiting for the handful that were open with supply; the only ones like Hess or BP. Shell, Exxon, Getty and many others closed off by yellow tape like as if someone had died there. Luckily there was no violence or chaos, everyone understood the circumstances but like I said this is a mild spurt of nature. The storm only lasted one day and the recovery took a week to get things back to normal. Imagine the disruption to society if there were a major gas shortage or example food/water shortage? I was discussing this with a family member who said "You're right this world is too dependant on gas".
I am watching the History Channel, a series about "The Men Who Built America". One of the portraits is of how John D. Rockefeller came from an almost bankrupted small oil producer to one of the richest men through associates and competitors. Rockefeller was given an opportunity to be a sort of supplier for Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt, at the time one of the richest railroad tycoons. The railroads needed to stay in operation in order to keep the massive over building profitable. One source would be from Rockefeller's perfectly located oil supply. The country had a demand for oil. This would land a perfect deal between the two for both their companies to be profitable, but in the long run more so for Rockefeller. Rockefeller would eventually grow bigger than Vanderbilt and started monopolizing all the competing oil companies. In out growing Vanderbilt, Rockefeller makes a deal with another railroad tycoon, Tom Scott. But Rockefeller eventually grows even bigger, his ego with it. Knowing the railroad giants were in need of his product to keep their rails operating, the show states Rockefeller has the railroad companies in his pockets. Vanderbilt, not to be outwitted forged a united alliance with the other railroad companies, specifically with Tom Scott, to not deliver Rockefeller's oil, hoping to put a stop to oil distribution, thus growth of Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. It was stated on the show, this meant war to Rockefeller. He figured out a way around the railways, he started building pipelines to move his oil as far as they could reach and it worked. The massive need of railway operation had halted causing a fear that railroads would become useless. This caused the high prices of railroad stock to plummet down to nothing, causing a Depression, the stock market closed for days and jobs were lost, riots taking place, collapsing the massive railroad operations. Rockefeller would eventually remain on top, Vanderbilt would eventually die and Tom Scott would follow.
The massive railroads would eventually be replaced by cars and airplanes, but the need to move them remains. Rockefeller, now but just a name and a legacy has been renamed but it's still the same product. It was only a three day interuption to the gas supply. It caused men and women to stand or wait in cars for hours, lines of 50 each, at gas station that even had their short supply. I know I waited my hour and twenty minutes to be eventually told "we are out".
The point of this article isn't really what will happen when we run out of gas, I am sure the minor chaos that will be caused in it's after effect will be relieved by brilliant organizors that will move to an electric form of energy. Just like when Rome died, the United States was formed, and when the United States dies, there will be another empire to take it's place but the struggle to find a way ahead, like the concept of the aqueducts, will remain. But right now oil and gas shortage is in it's first week.
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