TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross
Gas lines New York
People line up at a gas station waiting to fill up on Friday in Newark, N.J. In parts of New York and New Jersey, drivers lined up early Friday for hours at gas stations that were struggling to stay supplied. (AP Photo)

Race among the ruins

November 2, 2012 @ 8:36 am (Updated: 2:38 pm - 11/2/12 )

Editor's note: After this story was published, the New York City Marathon was canceled.

A lot of New Yorkers can't believe the mayor would let the New York City marathon go on.

He wants to show the world how resilient the city is, plus it brings in money, and supports a lot of charities - all good things. But thousands of recreational runners smartly jogging past neighborhoods that have been torn apart? This Staten Island politician doesn't get it:

"The fact that the mayor wants to have a marathon this weekend when we have people who lost their lives or lost their entire house is unbelievable to me."

You know what they should do? Give all the runners jugs of gasoline that they can drop off as they run. And I'm not sure I'm even kidding about that. This happens in every major storm, the gas lines:

"I'm coming from Queens to get this. Gotta have it."
"There's no gas in the Bronx, uptown Manhattan, nothing. Only this station."

The weak point of American civilization is the gas station and the kicker is it's not for lack of gas. There's plenty of gas, just no way to pump it.

The richest nation in history; is one superstorm away from the third world.

Except the third world has a backup plan. Years ago, I was in the old Soviet Union and we hired a guy to drive us from Leningrad to Moscow through a countryside in perpetual depression with no gas stations. But our driver would keep an eye out for a tanker truck and he would follow it. Eventually it would pull to the side of the road and the truck driver would sell some gas.

It worked. We got there. Saved by the black market.

Yet here in America? No power, no gas. You would think with all that anti-terrorism money, someone by now would have figured out a way to drop off generators at the gas stations.

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Comments (38)


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  • mnpat wrote...
    "The richest nation in history; is one superstorm away from the third world. "
    November 2, 2012 3:01 pm
    It doesn't take a superstorm, just look at what happened in Seattle last winter when the region received 4" of snow....the cries for help and despair....too much reliance on someone coming in to save the day and our buttocks....we are an entirely weak group and should be embarrassed at the conveniences we demand. All those people didn’t need to meet the fate they did if they would head some common sense.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    The 'third world' is there already.
    November 2, 2012 5:01 pm
    The Wizard came and left. ... the people get little help (and even some are prevented from helping), and the elite hold their circus as if nothing is wrong.

    As long as those runners and the media are not inconvenienced, who cares if others are cold, hungry and without fuel. ...... The photo op pictures have already been taken. - and most of those people voted early, anyway.

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  • sportsguru wrote...
    Wait a minute guys/gals
    November 2, 2012 5:47 pm

    What's keeping any State from protecting it's citizens? Why aren't our state leaders creating state emergency preparedness funds and/or personell for immediate impacts. Insurance companies have been doing it for 20 years, they have paid claims adjuster's, contractor's and data processor's, inspectors etc... on call from day one and are selected and are required to responde to natural disasters at a moments notice.

    Why does the federal government have to tell a State that they need to be prepared for a natural disaster? Our leaders should already know how the federal government work and shouldn't be dependent on the federal government to provide immediate response when they are in Washington DC and the leader's of the state and there own resource's right in the state? The federal government should be like excess coverage and/or subsidy payment.

    I would blame the states and not the Federal government, it's not like they don't have a budget to work with.

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  • Forrest wrote...
    Sporty, Washington does have an emergency preparedness team.
    November 2, 2012 6:15 pm
    It's stationed down at Camp Murray.
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