Gas Lines in Connecticut, A Lesson Learned
October 31, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
According to a report from ‘NBC Connecticut’, “In Hartford police are keeping order at a gas station near Airport Road so no one cuts in line”, a situation that is cropping up all over and may be getting worse as the massive power outage continues in parts of New England following the freak October snowstorm that dumped nearly 1 to 3 feet of snow. The leaves on the tress, not having fallen off yet for the winter, captured the very wet heavy snow which eventually toppled and uprooted countless trees toppling into power lines all across Connecticut, Massachusetts and other northeast states, resulting in unprecedented region-wide power outages that could last for another week in many areas.
One immediate and worsening side effect of the power outages have been a lack of availability of gasoline for vehicles and generators. Except for the few regions that still have power, the gas stations are ‘down’ and the gasoline cannot be pumped from their tanks. People are running out of gas, and getting desperate. Many are driving far and wide to find areas with power, to fill their tanks. The search for gasoline has apparently become so demanding that long lines are developing at any gas station that has power. The police have been called…
What’s the lesson here?
Not only is it wise to stock up with some food and supplies (BEFORE an event), but also stock up with some extra gasoline.
It’s not that difficult, but you will have to spend some money up front on gas cans. Most typical ‘approved’ plastic gas ‘cans’ that may hold 5 gallons will probably cost about $20 each. 5 gallons of gas will cost about $20, so, that’s an upfront total cost of about $40 to hold 5 gallons of gasoline. Expensive, yes, a bit… but…
I would not stop at 5 gallons! I would suggest considering a 30-gallon supply, which is a total upfront cost of about $240. Depending on your vehicles gas mileage, 30 gallons seems like a reasonable supply to have on hand for a moderate emergency, such as what is occurring in the state of Connecticut for example. Don’t forget the extra fuel you’ll need for a generator (if you have one).
The MSB legal department says, check your local fire codes for any restrictions on gasoline storage in your area. Call your local Fire Dept. – they’ll let you know.
One more thing, If storing gasoline for long term, say 6 months to a year before rotating it, then you should absolutely add ‘fuel stabilizer’, the most popular being a product called STA-BIL
NBC Connecticut:
As Gov. Dannel Malloy took an aerial tour on Monday, he noticed backups, including a half-mile line outside a gasoline station in Wolcott. Attorney General George Jepsen put pricing controls in effect Monday to keep people from being gouged at the pump, according to Malloy.
Here is what some are saying regarding the gas line situation in CT:
“See, the slightest little thing to disrupt the norm and all hell breaks loose. What are these big cities going to do when something big happens?”
“I waited in line for close to 2 hours, running on fumes to find the station only had “Preimum Grade” available.”
This microcosm of a real-world-example would be just the very beginning shreds of untangling that would occur on the fabric of civility should a large scale worst-case-scenario disaster slam into our life. Example: A Carrington-event solar flare which knocks out power grids on a VERY large scale for a VERY long time. It would only take a few days for everything to devolve into massive chaos. Think about it. Your 30 gallon supply of fuel will be a drop in the bucket compared to what you will ultimately need…
But for now, lets start with 30 gallons.
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If only people would understand how easy it is to store even 5 gallons of gas (and preferrably more) they wouldn’t have this problem!
People (non-preppers) are nuts. First they don’t take precautions, then they get all in a panic to get the stuff they want/need for this totally predictable event (hello, winter’s here), and will drive around and around, and then fight for their spot in a line up to get what they want/need. Not me, if I don’t have it I’ll just have to do without. My plan is to hunker down in a nice cozy bed with a good book and a cup of tea, my cap on my head and my cat by my side. Or is that: my cat on my head…
You said it Diana, the key word here is ‘panic’. So many people do indeed panic when they are thrown out of their normal routine. It doesn’t even have to be a disaster… I’ve seen it time and time again. I swear it’s worse now than ever before. People just don’t know how to ‘deal’ when the system temporarily breaks. They are lost. These observations prompt me to be even more wary of what would happen if we ever encountered a big time disaster.
“IMPORTANT” ON GAS STORAGE. http://www.ehow.com/list_6823646_osha-gasoline-regulations.html
The first link is osha but relates to what the feds regulate with gasoline storage. The second is all about gasoline storage and it says that many state and local laws prohibit gasoline storage in excess of 5 gallons. Give me a break, 5 gallons!? I guess they do not want some fire. I read that 1 gallon gasoline has the explosive power of 14 sticks of dynamite. As long as it is safely done I don’t see any problem with gas storage. Read that New York city ONLY allows 2.5 gallons of gas that can be stored, don’t know if this is true, this seems to absurd to believe.
I store gasoline safely and the state I live in has laws that don’t suffocate you like some places. I just don’t want any of our friends out there to get in trouble for storing too much gasoline by the LAW. I can’t believe with responsible people how THEY make it so difficult for people trying to survive. My God, no more than 5 gallons you can store in places, 2.5 in NYC. What are things coming to?
My advice is to call up your local fire station and ask them the city and county laws on gasoline storage. I would hate to see anyone out there get some fine or something.
Ken, please check the links and see that I did not leave out a comma or something, it is important for everyone to read this. I just cannot believe how the law suffocates us, people just trying to prepare.
Good point. Be sure to use ‘real’ approved gasoline storage containers, and it wouldn’t hurt to check with your local Fire Dept. to see if there are limits to what you can keep at your home (and how to store them).
Many work places use acceptable containers for fuel that they throw out. I keep 35 gallons of gas with stabilizer in my shed stored in containers I found at work. If TSHTF, this will go towards rototilling and chainsawing and not for a driving or a generator unless absolutely necessary.
I lived in Las Vegas in 1973 when a comedian on TV prompted the belief that there was a toilet paper shortage. So of course people went to the store and bought toilet paper and viola; there was a toilet paper shortage. A self fullfilling prophecy. It affected Las Vegas more then LA (where the comedians joke was pointed to) because Las Vegas has a long and slow to react supply line. Certain areas in the U.S. are more sensitive to these things then other locations.
One course of action also is to keep your automobile as close to full as possible, your generators should be kept as close to full also, IF you are not allowed to store that much gasoline in your city. One thing that you could do also is to buy as many of the gas containers as you can, and when it appears like something is going to occur then go fill up the gas containers and screw the law at that point. I personally have several empty gas containers right off the shelf, never used, that I can fill up with water or additional gasoline to what I have.
It should be noted that when some breaks the law there are consequences to this IF caught. IF you area has a strict regulation on a certain amount of gas to store and you go against this and there is ever a fire very terrible circumstances can result. First of all your home owner’s insurance probably would not be valid for what they call deliberate neglect. Next the laws, as some of them are quite strange and confusing could hold you responsible for any additional fires in your neighborhood that they SAY would be the result of over storage of gasoline. IS IT WORTH IT? Check with your local fire department so you know the rules on how much gasoline to store. I was reading that many places in Canada do not allow storage of more than 10 liters of gas, that is less than 3 gallons.
“Here at MSB it is important that we all watch each other’s backs”, and what I am suggesting might be viewed as more doom and gloom, but I have found that BREAKING THE LAW is fine if you don’t get caught, but if you do it is painful. Storing too much gasoline and there is a spark or some vapours ignite something and you could be financially ruined if your home owner’s insurance was ruled by a court not to be responsible. I personally would like to store hundreds of gallons of gasoline, but to do so you must have special permits or you could be literally arrested if anyone found out you were without them. “Survival also has to do with not taking stupid idiotic unnecessary risks”. I just do not want to see anything bad happen to anyone out there because they did not check first on the regulations on storage and how much gasoline can be kept at a residence.
Thanks for this article.
I was wondering how much gas I should store for my generator? I assume the 30 gallons are only for mobility (i.e. car gas tank)?
Thank you.
@Kojak, Let’s say you have this particular generator, Champion Power Equipment 46517 3,500 Watt 196cc OHV 4-Cycle Gas Powered RV Ready Portable Generator With Wheel Kit, which consumes 4 gallons in 12 hours at 50% load. “IF” you ran it full time, 8 gallons per day, that comes out to 56 gallons in a week.
You could probably get by with 12 hours per day, depending how cold it is outside, your needs, etc., and halve that to 28 gallons in a week.
So, check your generator specifications and calculate it out. Personally, I would feel alright having a week’s worth of generator fuel, which would cover most typical disasters such as an ice storm, etc. Your risk tolerance will help you decide how much fuel to keep on hand.
@ Kojak. If you have the money you can purchase much more expensive generators that will power down when the load is reduced. They are called inverter generators that are SMART. When the they power down, when there is less power consumption they use less fuel. Many appliances will idle during parts of the day, like a refrigerator goes through cycles. The common generator that Ken is talking about and the ones I unfortunately have run constantly at about the same engine speed and use more fuel. You can also purchase generators that will run on different types of fuel such as gasoline and propane. There is also diesel running generators in which you could store much more diesel fuel as it is hardly as flammable as gasoline.
I would say that IF it is legal to store gasoline in larger amounts and you can do it safely then store as much as you can use. I live in a state that is pretty relaxed about whacked out laws, but many areas the laws on storing gasoline as well many other laws are just plain frightening. I did an extension study on generators and storing gasoline years ago to get the best for the money I could. As Ken says you can ration the hours in which you use the generator. The less watts you get the less fuel you will use. Normally you can consider for each 400-500 watts of power 1 gallon of gasoline per day.
If you can forget about your refrigerator and freezer and basically run a generator just for the essentials such as electric lights during the night, or even running a pellet stove, that does not use that much energy to keep warm during the winter, you can maybe get by with a small 1000 watt Honda generator. Someone with basic minimum power needs could use 1 to 1 and 1/2 gallons of gasoline per day, especially with a Smart type generator. A month’s of power for 6-8 five gallon containers of gasoline. Again I would personally check to make sure anyone can store this much gasoline in their area with the local fire station or department.
One thing mentioned in other articles is the value of a wood stove to stay warm as these do not need power to run as the pioneers of the past relied on them to keep from freezing. Another rule of thumb is to always keep at least “1/2 tank full” of fuel in your vechicle at all times. So often people run their car’s tank down to almost empty and then something happens and they panic, a preventable situation. When your car is always at 1/2 tank when you go to fill it up the bite on your wallet is not so hard, even though you are probably using the same fuel amounts. It is a psychological issue that it feels a little better to spend a twenty and a five twice than to spend a fifty once on gas.
Thanks so much Ken and Be Informed, I really appreciate your help.
I live in Australia, so our winters are very mild. Whilst for 3 months of the year we use a little oil heater at nights, it’s actually possible not to use any heating all year round in a SHTF scenario. I’m preparing mainly for a economic collapse scenario, as there are no natural disasters to speak of here in New South Wales other than draughts (which I am prepared for thanks to your article about water storage).
I assume the most important appliances to run for me are therefore: Fridge, Microwave, lights, TV and Computer and so a 3,500 Watt Generator should probably do.
For cooking, would a camping cooker with butane bottle do the job?
For cooking, my personal favorite for camping or home emergency has always been the Coleman dual-burner, dual-fuel stove. It takes ‘White Fuel’ or Gasoline. A can of white fuel will last quite awhile. It’s easy to stock up on cans too. My suspicion with butane-bottle type of stoves is I’ll bet they eat through fuel compared to others. The good thing with butane type burners are there are models that are small, lightweight, compact, and good for on-the-go.
Actually if there were a Carrington Event, there would be no reason to have gasoline stored unless you protected your generator and whatever electrical device you were going to run on the generator in a Faraday Cage.
You can’t drive anywhere because your car would be dead so is everyone elses car, maybe some military vehicles are hardened to the Electro-Magnetic Pulse of the CME. Your refrigerator-freezer dead, chainsaw dead, radio, phone, tv all dead, even if you saved these devices from the Carrington Event, nothing will work because all the transmitting stations and towers are dead. GASP!!! NO INTERNET!!!! IEIEIEIE!!!
Gasoline Storage is a wonderful idea, for temporary power interruptions, tyere are varying sizes of CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS, creating an ELECTRO-MAGNETIC PULSE here on earth and in those situations some devices may survive; but to throw the Carrington Event – an X30 into this gasoline storage blog is silly.
Just My 2cents
@Master Ascension, Actually, the mention of the Carrington event is precisely a slice of what this blog is about… risk awareness and survival preparedness. And yes, if an event occurred as you described (with literally everything electronic having burned out), then we would have much bigger problems facing us than some stored gasoline would solve. There would be massive human die-off.
It would send us back to the 1300′s, only a few of us know how to build a horse drawn wagon, made entirely of with hand powered tools… Or how to forge iron into tools, how to raise livestock, grow and store food, raise bees to harvest honey and wax. The list goes on and on.
World population would drop to less than 500,000,000 from where we are now at 7,000,000,000. Within three years. Thankfully cockroaches will vanish from the northern hemisphere within 10 years after a Carrington Event, have to look at the bright side somewhere I guess.
Sorry I had one more question regarding gas storage.
I started storing about 20 gallons of gas in jerry cans. They are tightly sealed, however when I go into the garage where I store them, I can smell a faint smell of petrol.
Is this normal? I am worried that this causes a fire risk.
Any help is much appreciated.
@Kojak, A good gas can will not release any vapors if everything is screwed tight. I suspect that either the main cap or vent cap is not screwed tight, or one of the cap seals may have deteriorated. The only other way that vapors would be released is by a leak, or the initial splashing or spillage of gasoline after having filled it. To find the source, use your nose… smell around the can. Be safe.
Thank you Ken, I already smelled at both caps and all cans seem to hardly smell at all. That being said I did spill a little bit of gas while filling, so maybe that gas is now slowly vaporising and thus causing the fumes.
I will keep an eye on it.
That’s probably it… it’s amazing how just a tiny gas spill will produce such an odor.