New York mayor orders fuel rationing after storm

New York city mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered the rationing of fuel due to a severe shortage caused by Superstorm Sandy.

Based on licence plate numbers ending in odd or even numbers, drivers will be allowed to buy fuel on alternate days, Bloomberg announced at a briefing yesterday. Licences ending in a letter are eligible to buy on odd-numbered days, he said.

The system, which follows a similar rationing regime implemented in New Jersey last week, begins at 6am today.

New York city has been hard hit by fuel shortages since Sandy hit 10 days ago, due to power outages and inventory that has been stranded at refineries. Bloomberg said only a quarter of the city’s fuel stations are open.

Emergency vehicles, buses, taxis and certain other vehicles are exempt from the rationing.

Superstorm Sandy caused an estimated $50 billion (€39bn) in damages and economic losses for the US north-east region, with New York state sustaining $33bn in damages, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said last night.

“That is a staggering number, especially with the financial situation we’ve been in,” he told a news conference.

It came as New York city and much of the US northeast dug out from a snowstorm.

The unseasonably early winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of Connecticut and slapped the region with 50mph winds, plunging another 300,000 homes and businesses back into darkness and creating a new commuting nightmare for a region whose transportation system was still under repairs.

The bitter cold, rain and powerful winds added to the misery of disaster victims whose homes were destroyed or power knocked out by the massive storm Sandy that smashed ashore on October 29 with epic flooding.

* Additional reporting by Reuters