r/TikTokCringe • u/Girl-Understood • Aug 22 '26

Discussion This mother has gone viral vlogging her experience during the ongoing Gary, Indiana Blackout, people angered by the GoFundMe support she's attracted decided to report it and doxxed her.

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u/DJEvillincoln Aug 22 '26

Had no idea this was happening. 0 news coverage.

Wtaf.

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u/20milliondollarapi Aug 22 '26

Drove through there Thursday and the traffic lights are still out two weeks later. It’s wild to me. Even Hammond has some sections out. The signs on 80 there also aren’t working for time estimates. Haven’t been through at night. But gas stations themselves have power. At least the Gary loves does. Idk about the others.

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u/rezyop Aug 22 '26

But gas stations themselves have power.

I've always wondered how many gas stations across the US have gas generators. That just makes sense to me. Can't otherwise sell gas in a blackout, might as well burn some to stay open... right? These rural ones are probably just on the neighboring town's power grid or something, though.

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u/nametaken420 Aug 22 '26

all of the gas stations in hurricane prone zones do. but the pumps are very slow so it takes forever to get just a few gallons into a can.

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u/MrThoughtPolice Aug 23 '26

Not always true in the smaller towns :(

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Aug 22 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

Outside of the hurricane areas, most of them didn't have any backup until this happened.

I remember a few had emergency manual pumps so I was able to leave the thriving metropolis of Ypsilanti Michigan (possibly for cleaning and used for the emergency? maybe some redditors who work at gas stations can help with that as I don't recall exactly, sleeping overnight at that gas station made my memories of it a bit muddled lol)

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u/The1Like Aug 27 '26

It was SO hot the week of the blackout in southern Ontario it was insane.

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u/MrNationwide Aug 22 '26

To provide emergency power you'd need a large generator, not just a $200 harbor freight special that you keep in the backroom. With permits and installation, you're talking at minimum $6k, probably closer to $10k for a properly setup generator, shit, maybe more. This is what you're going to pay for a whole home generator, maybe a business generator is going to be even more. Then you have what is essentially a small car's worth of regular maintenance (ie: oil changes and the like) for something that doesn't generate any revenue.

Then when the day does come that the city loses power and you're the one gas station still operating, your costs are going up (gas is more expensive than line power) and you have customers lined up down the block to buy gas, and you can't REALLY charge much more than normal because that would be price gouging. Now, even saying that a city is going to have a blackout for two weeks every decade (which they aren't), you can amortize the cost of the generator by probably 15 years, so you're talking $3k a week to be open, not including maintenance and interest.

You're basically never going to recoup your costs. The only gas stations in this country that have generators are those in hurricane areas, and that's only because they started requiring them to have them. Otherwise they would just plan to shut down during power outages.

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u/20milliondollarapi Aug 23 '26

A generator for a full service truck stop with showers, food and more? I would be shocked if the generator is anything less than 100k

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u/MrNationwide Aug 23 '26

Sure, but I didn't see anybody talking about truck stops. I figured a typical gas station would be closer to a large house in panel setup than a large business like a truck stop.

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u/20milliondollarapi Aug 23 '26

My original comment was about one of the major truck stops there to begin with, but also understandable of not knowing that.

I would be very impressed if that one is running off a generator though.

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u/eoz Aug 23 '26

You've got me wondering how long that gas can sit underground without being sold (gasoline degrades) and how much it would cost to pump it back out and dispose of it if it does 

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u/Known_Ratio5478 Aug 23 '26

Most have shifted to solar to power the gas pumps. They have those awnings over the pumps that are perfect for solar collection.

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u/KaijuDesk Aug 23 '26

Mom and Pop gas stations don’t own the gas so they’d have to pay the oil companies if they used it

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u/QING-CHARLES Aug 28 '26

I'm very rural mid-west. The Casey's near me does not have a generator at all and we have frequent power outages from the constant tornados and storms this year. They usually have to stuff all the frozen things in car trunks and run them to the next nearest store.