Скачать или смотреть Gas Shortage Impacting Upstate NY

ALBANY - The lines for gas in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey stretch for miles.  One man in Queens, so desperate to fill-up, was arrested after he cut the line and then pulled a gun on a customer who confronted him.  Only about 40% of the stations downstate are operational, the others are either damaged from the storm, don't have power or have run out of gas.  It's become a nightmare for drivers there and if you think the Capital Region has been spared, think again.  While drivers here won't see lines for gas that stretch around entire neighborhood, the Capital Region's proximity to the impacted area has those who were affected looking to us for help.  "An employee of mine is from New Jersey and they have no fuel down there, so we're filling it up for him so he can bring these back down there, they can't get any new gas," Drew McDonald told CBS6 on Friday while filling up five gas cans at the Mobil Station on Route 7 in Latham.  It's a major problem that both downstate residents and distributors are trying to cope with.  "Many of the gas distributors who deliver gas to stations and convenience stores down there, have started coming up the river to try and find terminals where there is gas," says Jim Calvin, the President of the New York State Convenience Store Association.  The Port of Albany is open and as been for most of the week, ships have been coming in and out carrying hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel but there isn't just an increase in demand for it from downstate, "much of the Syracuse, Utica, Rochester area is supplied by a pipeline that originates in New Jersey and brings motor fuel to terminals up in Central New York, that went off-line on Monday in advance of the storm and is just now getting back to operation" says Calvin.  Which means, what fuel is here, has to be spread much further than normal.  "They're (distributors) allowed to pick-up 75% of what they would normally pick up on a normal day so they'll be delivering less fuel, so stations and stores may be receiving less fuel," says Calvin adding, "you may see some spot outages as early as this weekend, I don't think they'll be widespread."There is also concern about the price of gasoline rising because of the supply issues.  "Whenever there is any kind of disaster happening, prices usually do go up," says Lester Noga of Schenectady but Calvin begs to differ, "even though the supply may tighten, we don't expect the demand to rise a great deal, so, I'd be hopeful that prices would remain stable," he says.