Long gas lines, closed grocery stores, no power and cold nights have been the story of my life during this past week of Hurricane Sandy.

Not having enough gas to leave Queens, my family and I were forced to stick it out in our cold home with no electricity or heat, while others have traveled across the city to stay with family members who have power or at hotels. My family and I haven’t had power since around 2 p.m., Monday.

Since we have a gas stove, we were able to cook the food that we had in our refrigerator during the first two nights of the storm. We had enough candles to sufficiently light up my house and it was not that cold. By the third day, we had no food, and the temperatures were dropping. That evening we went driving around to find ice, candles and gas and kept coming up empty-handed. When we finally got in a line that was not ridiculously long, the gas station ran out of gas when we were third in line.

My mother’s fully-loaded Ford Explorer was our only source of power during and after the storm. We also used it to get Hurricane Sandy updates from the radio, and for heat.  But then, gas fuel got low and we began to panic.

Finding gas in the borough was, and still is, like finding a needle in a haystack. For those who have found gas stations that have gas have endured two and three hour long waits. Some have such low fuel that they cannot bare the long wait and have to stand in line with gas cans. One day my family and I drove around Queens and Elmont looking for gas and found nothing but stations without gas.

The next day, my cousin waited in line for two hours with a gas can, and even then he could not get us  enough gas to get out of Queens. We were planning to go to the Bronx where my aunt lives, but since there was a lot of traffic, we not only needed gas to get us to the Bronx, but to also get us through the long stalls on the road. Therefore, we had to stay another night in a house with no food, light or heat.

Power was restored to a few houses on my block around 10:30 p.m. Friday night, and I finally got power back today, on Saturday.

However, there are still challenges ahead. The storm impacted Queens’ bus and train service as well.  Queens Boulevard express and local service is suspended, while other trains run only to 34th street and certain parts of Brooklyn. Long Island Railroad Service has also been operating on a limited basis as well, mainly servicing the Jamaica station, and only providing off-peak service to the Kew Gardens and Forest Hills stations.

If the trains do not return to normal, my commute will be longer. The buses nearest to my house have slowly returned to their normal schedule; however, some bus stops are out of service due to work being done in certain areas to restore power. The buses have also been free of charge, which seems to do more harm than good – they are more crowded than usual.

Tanay Hudson is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].