Gas shortage followed Christmas storm

Drivers were flocking to pumps after fuel was available again, station owner said

People looking to gas up their cars a couple of days after the big Christmas wind may have found it a challenge.

Guy Surette, owner of the Tusket Ultramar in Yarmouth County, was among the service station operators affected, saying his station ran out of gasoline Wednesday morning and didn’t get a delivery until 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

The problem reportedly was with Esso’s gas distribution depot in Dartmouth, which was impacted by a power failure caused by the Christmas Day storm.

By Wednesday afternoon (Dec. 27), Surette said, many stations in the Yarmouth area and other parts of Nova Scotia basically had run out.

The Yarmouth Petro-Canada station on Haley Road was another station that had run out of fuel, for instance.

Contacted Thursday – not long after getting his delivery – Surette said he had been told he would have gas delivered by early the previous evening, but by Thursday morning he was still waiting.

Surette said his station had received many calls from people wondering if he had gas yet.

Some from away – people who were in the local area to visit family or friends for Christmas – were looking to fuel up in order to go back home, he said.

The gas ran out, he said, at a time when there were still some people without power due to the Christmas Day storm and they were looking to fill gas cans for generators.

After his station had fuel again on the afternoon of Dec. 28, Surette said the place was very busy.