How remote do you have to be?

Posted on by Anne Walch

I lived in the landlocked Himalayan Third World country of Nepal from 1993 to 1997. All Nepal’s fuel came over the border from India, and then over the Himalayan foothills on a precipitous two-lane mountain road.

Despite earthquakes and monsoon landslides and despite an incompetent, bickering government, we never experienced fuel disruptions such as those we have been having in Western North Carolina. A Third World country can deliver fuel better than what we have seen here in WNC.

It is a ridiculous excuse that it is difficult to get gasoline to our “remote region,” with multiple four-lane highways entering our region from all directions.

WNC has now suffered significant fuel disruptions from hurricanes Katrina and Ike, while [most] of the country did not. Do our local and state leaders finally realize that the infrastructure and system of supplying gasoline to WNC has serious flaws? And will they finally take specific measures to correct these issues? Or will they drop this problem, and with the next hurricane—while the rest of the country gets on about their business and easily purchases gasoline—will WNC yet again fail even Third World standards in fuel infrastructure?

— Anne Walch
Asheville

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One thought on “How remote do you have to be?”

  1. Dave

    Ann-

    I dont think it was ‘flaws’ that caused the shortage. It was quite intentional.

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