For storm victims, supplies of dry ice were elusive
Tens of thousands of Capital Region residents continued to reel from Wednesday afternoon’s monster thunderstorm on Friday, communities continued their cleanups and utility crews brought power back hundreds at a time from a peak of close to 160,000 outages.
As midnight approached, between 20,000 and 25,000 National Grid customers remained waiting for power, largely in Albany County.
A feature of the post-storm tableau Friday: The crush – and disappointment – of residents trying to get dry ice from the utility at a morning give-away.
Melanie Dolan’s pork and chicken were about to rot in the fridge, so at 8 a.m. she drove to Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, parked in the
empty Macy’s lot and realized she was the first person to get in line for the dry ice distribution.
“National Grid people weren’t even here when I got here,” Dolan said.
The dry ice giveaway was scheduled for 10 a.m. By 10:45, the line was hundreds of vehicles long and at a standstill, with people parked from Macy ’s to Dick's Sporting Goods, wondering where the cooling substance was.
“What’s the deal?” Dolan asked, because her husband tried getting dry ice on Thursday, but National Grid had run out.
Virginia Limmia, a National Grid spokeswoman, said that dry ice was in short supply, so the company was at the mercy of dry ice suppliers and waiting for them to produce the shipments. By Friday night, another distribution was being set up from 8 to 10 p.m. Limmia said that their allotment was replenished, allowing them to return to the Macy's parking lot at the mall with more free dry ice and regular ice.
National Grid will return to Crossgates again from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and will also hand out dry ice and water during the same Saturday hours at the Pittstown Rescue Squad, 60 Parker Road in Johnsonville and at the Schenectady County Department of Engineering and Public Works, 100 Kellar Ave., Schenectady. Those picking up the dry ice are asked to bring a small cooler or shopping bag to transport it home. Earlier Friday in Rensselaer County, officials were told to go to a Pittstown location by National Grid to pick up dry ice. Nassau Supervisor David Fleming said he sent a truck to get the dry ice, but then received a telephone call saying not to bother, as they were out. Fleming said he doesn’t know if there was even any dry ice.
Fleming said it was terrible that “seniors from Nassau are getting told to drive the length of the county to get two pieces of dry ice to save their food.”
National Grid distributes dry ice to customers whenever a major power outage lasts longer than 24 hours. The company was made aware of the low supply late Thursday night and early Friday morning, Limmia said.
“There’s a shortage of CO2? That’s not my problem,” said Mary-beth Gillespie of Schenectady. “My problem is I don’t have electricity at my house, and I have a refrigerator, and I’m going to lose hundreds of dollars of food.”
The beef tenderloins, the ribs, it was “a lot of money at stake,” and now it was a lot of wasted time because she had gotten there at 8:20 a.m., and all she’d been given by National Grid was a water bottle and an apology for having to wait for so long.
Those who were near the front of the line started grabbing little bags of regular ice. And those about a hundred cars back began poking their heads against car windows and wondering if they ’d ever get what was advertised.
Ed Harr had one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his forehead. He was there at 10 a.m.
“I’m not waiting,” Joe Lasch, from Delmar, hollered from his vehicle to Harr. “I don’t think we’re getting anything.”
“You mean we’re waiting for nothing here?” Harr asked.
Both left. The car behind them, occupied by Barry Pollack of Albany, stayed in line. He believed National Grid was doing the best it could.
“Their crews are working way overtime,” he said.
By 11:30, people had had enough. Almost all of the hundreds of cars were beginning to file out.
Kristen Padilla, from Delmar, was outside her car with her 9-year-old daughter, Maggie, who was in her owl pajamas. They, too, had been there Thursday afternoon and left empty-handed.
“(Maggie’s) very worried about her popsicles,” Kristen said. There was also the $200 worth of groceries in the freezer and fridge, so Padilla grabbed Maggie’s hand and got in line for the bag of regular ice, which they had at this point waited more than three hours for.
“Thank you so much, and I apologize,” a National Grid worker told Padilla.
They walked back to their car. “This isn’t going to help me much,” she said.
It was enough for the ground turkey, Padilla said, and maybe a couple of watermelon popsicles.