While gas is available in the United States, drivers across the pond in Great Britain are stuck in a panic. As a gas shortage continues to plague residents of the United Kingdom, people are lining up at the pumps to collect as much gas as they can. Some “idiot” driver has even resorted to filling up old plastic water bottles with gasoline, which is very dangerous, and the entire thing was caught on video.
Over the weekend, the sale of jerrycans rose a staggering 1,656 percent, according to Halfords.
“‘I thought, ‘I can’t believe the stupidity of this woman.’ This is the kind of thing that causes the problem,” said Rabbitt, who is from Tonbridge, Kent. “People were filling up things they shouldn’t be filling up, and no one else can get the fuel because of other people’s stupidity. The queue was all the way down the slip road. We were queuing for about 20 to 30 minutes. She was all blasé and doing it right in front of me. It’s ludicrous.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced that he would be visiting Germany’s key oil hubs of Rotterdam and Antwerp this week to discuss ways to mitigate the crisis with European Union leaders.
The gas shortage is so severe that the government has urged people to stop using their dryers and dishwashers until further notice. In response, Britain’s biggest supermarket chain Tesco said it would be limiting fuel purchases at most of its gas stations because availability from suppliers is limited.
Despite these efforts, some critics have said that the app has not had as big of an impact on petrol stations as it may have otherwise done due to a lack of fuel availability in many parts of the country. So far this week, about 60 percent of Tesco filling stations are without any unleaded fuel, and nearly all of Morrisons stations are dry.