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As Hurricane Ida began to overthrow transmission towers and destroy water supply systems in Southeast Louisiana, another vital infrastructure system slowly collapsed: gasoline distribution.
Lines of tankers were already backing up at refineries by the time Ida crashed in the state, damaging several of the facilities and leaving seven Louisiana refineries out of production. None of those seven were fully operational as of Wednesday, according to the State Department of Environmental Quality, although at least two have started the complex restart process.
Then came the shutdown of hundreds of gas stations that were bludgeoned by the high winds, funneling customers to a few select pumps that were energized. Meanwhile, demand for fuel had skyrocketed: first, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated by cars. And then over a million homes and businesses were left without electricity, many of them turning to gasoline generators.
The resulting shortage created scenes of desperation, anxiety and violence at gas pumps. People carrying empty gas cylinders wait for hours, sweating in the sweltering August heat, hoping the pumps don’t run out before it’s their turn. Motorists roam the streets, looking for tankers to follow to the next gas station. Tensions over line cuts have led to fights. The owners of gas stations ask the police to come and supervise the refueling.
State officials have also become desperate. Gov. John Bel Edwards on Wednesday called on President Joe Biden for massive fuel shipments, noting the dire situation the state finds itself in after two-thirds of its refining capacity was taken offline.
“We need bulk fuel before the refineries come back on their own,” Edwards said at a press conference in the hard-hit parish of Jefferson. “Because at the moment we don’t know when it’s going to be. “
Fuel shortages quickly turned into a crisis in a state where oil production and refining has been a mainstay of the economy since the turn of the 20th century. Louisiana is one of the major US states for crude oil imports, which arrive at a series of ports in southern Louisiana. Among them: Port Fourchon, where Ida made landfall, and the nearby Louisiana offshore oil port, which unloads oil from some of the world’s largest tankers.
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With 16 refineries, Louisiana produces far more gasoline than its people need. The state sends roughly three-quarters of its refined oil out of state and bears a significant portion of the nation’s refining load.
Almost half of the state’s refineries have closed because of Ida, Chuck Carr Brown, secretary of state for environmental quality, said in an interview. Those out of service include: Shell in Norco, Phillips 66-Alliance in Belle Chasse, Placid in Port Allen, ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge, Marathon in Garyville, Valero Meraux in Chalmette and Valero in Norco.
As these refineries closed – several suffered flooding or damage from Ida’s wind – the number of places where tankers could fill up declined. That meant load times were skyrocketing at refineries that continued to distribute – like ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge, said Johnny Milazzo, president of Denham Springs-based fuel supplier LardOil Company.
Milazzo said LardOil has turned to places as far away as Texas and Tennessee for tankers full of fuel, which drop off their load and fit into its fleet.
LardOil and other suppliers aren’t just filling gas stations used by desperate residents looking to fill up car tanks and generators. They also power the huge generators used by hospitals and industrial factories. As these places begin to be supplied with electricity from utility companies and refineries reopen, that should ease the pressure, Milazzo said.
“We’ve seen storms, I’ve seen Laura’s disaster at Lake Charles,” Milazzo said. “But I have to tell you that due to the density of the population here, this may be the most difficult storm we have ever had to prepare for. In the process, it is just as difficult.
ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge refinery, the fifth-largest in the United States in terms of capacity, mainly maintained fuel delivery at its terminal, except for a shutdown when the hurricane arrived. . Even though the refinery idled before Ida landed, spokeswoman Stephanie Cargile said ExxonMobil had refilled the tanks to continue blending gasoline to continue to fill the tanks needed by responders in the area. ’emergency. Exxon said it could take “several days” to restart the refinery, but that it “plans to meet local needs.”
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The Marathon refinery in Garyville, the third largest in the country, closed before Ida and suffered “minor damage,” spokesman Jamal Kheiry said. The refinery’s fuel loading terminal was running on a generator on Wednesday, said Kheiry, who did not respond to further inquiries. It was not clear when the refinery resumed distributing fuel after the storm.
At the B-Quick gas station on Tuesday night, a long line of cars pulled out of the parking lot on Perkins Road, as a worker directed traffic. Justin Alford, owner of the service station and subsidiary Benny’s Car Wash, said Ida’s rapid ramp-up did not allow companies to preload tanks and stage them, which gas stations have made before many storms, including Hurricane Katrina of 2005.
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The Shell’s Convent refinery had already closed before Ida, reducing the number of places to get fuel. Drivers were also in short supply, even before the storm dispersed many of them. Then when Ida knocked, cell service went down and Alford said he had no way of contacting them.
“The whole system just imploded,” Alford said. “People need fuel. We’ve seen people come in pushing their cars … we’re trying to do our part to make sure we have it.
The fuel spill began at least a day before the storm arrived. The lines at gasoline pumps were long on Saturday as people scrambled to refuel on their way out of town. A tanker driver who arrived at a Morgan City station said he had to wait two and a half hours to collect his load at the ExxonMobil refinery in Baton Rouge that morning, which is why he was late for fill empty station pumps.
Some local officials are calling for emergency fuel deliveries to ensure police and firefighters have enough gasoline to answer calls.
David Naquin, the director of homeland security for St. Mary’s Parish, along with Ascension officials and other parishes, ordered additional supplies to ensure police cars and trucks from firefighters remain supplied. Jefferson Ward President Cynthia Lee Sheng said fuel was one of the ward’s greatest needs. The parish had enough for first responders and government workers, but not enough to share with other essential service providers.
Entergy says he slowly turns on the lights after the first power station, the transmission line is restored
With gas stations in Houma and Thibodaux largely knocked out by Ida, residents desperately in need of gas are heading to Morgan City to refuel. Naquin said the resulting lines were huge and fighting broke out.
“They come here and put gas in whatever container they have,” Naquin said. “It’s scary to watch. But we understand that they need gas to run their generators.
David Mitchell and Kristen Mosbrucker contributed to this story.
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