In search of Gas

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the most pressing problem for most people was how to get gas. In the early days, it was really ugly with lines of cars stretching out for miles in New Jersey on one side and lines of people holding the red canister to fill it for whatever purpose on the other side. The gas shortage may have been created by a combination of loss of power to loss of gas at several stations or just people panicking to get gas at whatever cost in terms of time. Since I was home on vacation so I did not need the gas right away but just for trying to get gas to fill my half filled car I tried to go to some stations and just turned back because it was sickening to see long lines of cars with Police trying to regulate the traffic in an organized way. Although this mess was relieved after several days by implementing odd-even days of filling up the gas with odds number plate cars to get gas on odd days and even number plate cars on even days. But it is really shocking to see that there was not much planning as a back in case such a scenario ever happens. And New Jersey have refineries to boot. But it was just chaos for several days because of the so called gas shortage and countless hours (including some waiting for three hours or more ) to get just a few gallons of gas. We have taken life and its facilities so much for granted that even a few days (for some, not all) people feel very uncomfortable. There should be better planning in the states government throughout the U.S. in case of emergencies and not wait for an emergency to happen to starting taking steps. But this searching for gas was just too much for me since I am so use to it getting whatever time I wanted it. Makes you feel appreciative of little things in life.