After a set of severe storms passed through West Virginia area this past weekend, some gas stations and convenience stores are operating on a cash-only basis as crews work to restore power and deliver more fuel.
Jan Vineyard, president of the West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association, said about 65 to 75 percent of stations across the state were without power at the peak of outages.
As of this morning, she said, one-fourth of gas stations were without power and not pumping fuel.
Monica Jones, public relations manager at Sheetz, said after widespread outages the state's Sheetz stations now either have power completely restored or are working from a generator.
"The first call we got was Friday night around 7:30 from our Weston store," she said. "From what the district manager was saying, they were going above and beyond with 50 cars lined up without gas. They were directing traffic and they stayed open as much through the daylight hours as they could."
Areas currently experiencing problems with electricity are St. Albans, Man, Logan, Pikeville, Buckhannon and several areas in Lewis County, she said.
Vineyard said it depends on how quickly the power companies work, but a majority of stations could be operational by tomorrow morning.
Several gas stations also had a problem with receiving and keeping gas.
"We've been working with the governor's office, and our message has been don't drive if you don't need to and to leave gas for someone who has medical conditions or who do need to drive somewhere," she said.
Ice and bread are issues as well, she said. One store sold more than 600 bags of ice over the weekend, Vineyard said.
Another problem some stores experienced was with credit card machines. However, Vineyard said this was not a widespread problem.
Jones said many Sheetz stores had fuel shortages for a few hours on Saturday. She said some stores also experienced problems with their credit card machines.
"We were taking cash, hand-writing receipts and doing it the old-fashioned way," she said.
Vineyard explained the reason some stations were operating on a cash-only basis was because the credit machines are tied in to the phone lines, which were out of service in some areas. Therefore, cashiers would be unable to verify or process transactions, she said.
The biggest problem, Jones said, was selling food.
"They sold everything they could," she added. "Cold drinks were not cold and they were selling ice as long as they could."
"Customers were coming in and saying we had good service despite the conditions. … We're glad everyone has been patient with us and glad we stayed open as long as we could to help these folks," she said.
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