Gas lines!
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Having a Volt is actually a double-edged sword for this. On one hand as long as we can get electricity we can charge our cars, but on the other hand if the power goes out we may need to get gas. I think I would have topped my tank off before Harvey made land fall just as part of my disaster preparedness steps.
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That is one of the great things about the Volt. What other car can be driven (useful distances) on either electricity or gas when the other one is unavailable? It is the perfect car for these kinds of crises.
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If the power goes out, the gas station pumps won't work.
I worked in a gas station in my youth. Be very careful of flooded areas as their underground tanks may have too much water. The owner where I worked didn't get the tank filler on straight during icing weather. When the ice/snow melted it ran into the fill pipe and caused havoc with our customers.
I worked in a gas station in my youth. Be very careful of flooded areas as their underground tanks may have too much water. The owner where I worked didn't get the tank filler on straight during icing weather. When the ice/snow melted it ran into the fill pipe and caused havoc with our customers.
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That article mentioned something that hadn't occurred to me - a holiday weekend.
It is true that gas pumps are electric. However, in my experience with several major power outages due to hurricanes or winter storms, it was always possible to find a gas station somewhere that was in service. Electrical power typically goes out and is restored in patches. Repair priority is given to certain public needs like hospitals and commercial areas where people buy food and fuel. And anything located close to a substation is likely to have minimal downtime. Also, after several major East Cost storms in recent years, there has been more attention on installing generators at gas stations, sometimes with public grant money. But it still depends on the specific disaster scenario, of course.
Living here in northwestern Oregon on the Pacific Ocean electricity has and eventually will be off line for days. That why with our 2016 Volt I like to keep the gas tank full, and have 4 or 5 5 gallon gas can filled with regular gas as well for our generator, Volt, and our Prius. When the power goes off most gas stations can not pump the gas out of their tanks unless they have a standby generator.
I filled up my CMax Energi on both gas and electrons before Harvey hit down here. We were spared and haven't had to use the gas for generating electricity purposes but we'll be heading to Rockport to help a co-worker and friends some of whom are elderly. Trees still standing have no leaves and offer zero shade in our late August heat. I'll be offering it as an on-site air conditioner for them so they can still monitor our cleanup actions. I'll also use the rear seat 110v ac plug to run a couple of crockpots.
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Unless you are in Florida near evacuation routes...or in Louisiana at new or completely rebuilt service stations in the southern portion of the state....
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/rpt/2011-R-0389.htm
Update...
New York also became the third state to require that gas stations maintain backup power....strategically located stations within a half-mile of highway exits or evacuation routes must be connected to a backup generator within 24 hours of a declared emergency.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environme...-legacy-Gas-pumps-that-work-when-power-is-out
generators didn't help japans nuke plant when it was under water
I'm not quite sure if this is an attempt a humor or a gross misunderstanding of the incident. A lack of generators (disabled/swept away by the tsunami) is exactly what caused the problem at Fukushima, actually.
The reactor shut down without issues, but because they lost both grid power and their backup generators, they had no way to keep coolant flowing through the reactor and spent fuel pools, which eventually overheated from the passive decay and melted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster
Later generation reactors have cooling water located in tower as a secondary (tertiary?) safety measure I believe.
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Now gas prices are spiking and some actual gouging is going on. Some over $3/gal in DFW up from $2.
Here is a new link:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gas-prices-spiking-biggest-us-145313626.html
Here is a new link:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gas-prices-spiking-biggest-us-145313626.html
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Good for you for helping. My daughter and son-in-law have a house there (their main home is near Austin). Their house was damaged but definitely fixable. The neighbors, not so much. Many folks lost the only home they have in the hurricane. The son-in-law loaded up a bunch of stuff from Sam's to take down to hand out to the folks, many of which he's known for years.
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Yes, Christie Administration Offered Grants to Enhance Fuel Station Access to Back-Up Power
http://www.state.nj.us/governor/news/news/552013/approved/20131021b.html
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