Harlem’s Gas Line Stretches 15 blocks

City residents desperate for gas waited in line for more than two hours – or 15 blocks – just to fill up their tanks in Harlem.

The Hess gas station on W. 145th St. near Lenox Ave. was one of the only gas stations in the city with gas, and motorists were prepared to wait.

The line stretched as far as W. 129th St. and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. as of 1:30 a.m. on Friday.

Iris McRae, 58, of the Bronx, said she was searching for gas since 6 p.m.

It wasn’t until 12:30 a.m. that she finally filled up her Nissan Maxima after waiting in line in Harlem for nearly two hours.

“I was on this line forever,” she said, adding she also looked for gas in Brooklyn and Queens, but had no luck.

“This is the only place with gas,” she said. “I was just about on empty. I wouldn’t have gotten home. Now, that I got gas it makes me feel like I hit the lottery.”

More than two dozen police officers directed traffic near the gas station, and McRae was glad to see the police keeping the order.

“If the police wasn’t here somebody would be dead,” she said, noting the desperation of people in the aftermath of Sandy. “People would be shooting.”

Michael Wasilewski, 48, of the Bronx, also drove around for two hours before coming across the Harlem gas station.

“I’ve been driving around for hours,” he said as he got $75 worth of gas just after midnight on Friday. He filled up his car, and also picked up some extra gas for his wife’s car.

“I’ve never been so happy in my life,” he said. “It’s the little things that you take for granted. My wife is a nurse, and I gotta take her to work in the morning.”

Livery cab driver Rich Loza, 33, was in line at W. 130th St. and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., but he decided he would take his chances elsewhere.

“It’s horrible,” the Bronx native said. “The city should have been ready for this.”

He said he had to turn down a number of costumers because he didn’t have enough gas to travel long distances.

“You know how many fares I had to turn down tonight?” he said. “I don’t know if I’m going to have gas tomorrow. This is like gold right now.”

Loza, however, got frustrated and left the line to look for gas in Connecticut.

Devani Corpew, 22, of Harlem, also drove around the city for nearly five hours looking for a place to fill up.

“This is the last option,” he said. “It’s very frustrating.”

This wasn’t the first time Leon Frederick, 59, of the Bronx, waited in line for gas. This was his third attempt after waiting at two other gas stations, but never getting gas because the stations ran out.

He said he waited in line for two hours at a gas station on Webster Ave. and E. 168th St., and just when he got to the front of the line the station ran out.

He waited in his car at W. 130th St. and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. and hoped his luck would get better this time.

“Every time I got in line, the gas ran out,” Frederick said. “Why is it like this? I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”