At A Gas Station With No Gas, Puerto Ricans Settle In For An Interminable Wait
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/26/553632771/at-a-gas-station-with-no-gas-puerto-ricans-settle-in-for-an-interminable-wait...Along with her family, parked in a Volvo SUV, she's been in line for gasoline since 3 a.m., she says. Now it's after 1:30 p.m. And like everyone else at this gas station, she has no idea how much longer she'll be waiting.
Limited availability of gas has been a problem across Puerto Rico ever since Hurricane Maria hit last week. This station in Rio Grande, about 15 miles east of San Juan, doesn't have any gasoline at all right now. But it did have gas on Sunday night — until it ran out early Monday morning.
By the afternoon, about a hundred cars, along with scores of people with hand-held gas cans, were waiting for a new tanker to arrive.
"The problem is communication," says the manager of the Gulf Route 65 gas station, Carlos de Armas. "We don't know where the truck is."
Like nearly everywhere on the island, Rio Grande lacks cell phone service. There's no way to get word from the truck driver, and so it's anyone's guess when the tanker might arrive.
"I've been here for six hours," says Cindy Algarín, near the front of the line. "I'll wait six hours more." In fact, she's waited so long she's lost count — it's been closer to nine hours. She has been here since the station ran out of gas at 5 a.m.
"I'll stay maybe until tomorrow," she says. "Just bring a little blanket and a pillow." She laughs, but it's not clear if she's joking. "I don't want to leave," she says. "We're too close to getting gas. I don't want to leave."
Algarín wants fuel for her car so that she can travel in case of an emergency. She's in the separate line for people with hand-held gas cans — she doesn't need much, after all. "I don't really drive any more," she says. She means since the hurricane hit. "There's no work, I don't have to take my kid to school. Like, there's nothing else to do."...
