Insanity at a NYC gas station on Thursday. (Kristine Paulus/Flickr)

The lack of gas is a serious imposition, affecting everything, from personal transportation to fuel for generators to the ability to deliver supplies.

The gas stations are experiencing a surge in customers desperate for fuel. One gas station in Union, N.J., had a lines of cars waiting in three direction, with the shortest of these lines a half-mile long, reports the NY Times.

And these are only the gas stations up and running. Other gas stations still don't even have power to pump the fuel that they have.

The result is absolute mayhem. Security is increasing around the gas stations, and the media reports of shortages is only exacerbating people's anxiety over the gas shortage. Some gas stations have shut down in New York and New Jersey due to unbelievable demands, while others have experienced fights at the gas pumps.

"I've been pumping gas for 36 hours, I pumped 17,000 gallons," Abhishek Soni, an owner of a gas station who needed police intervention restore calm to his station, told the NY Times. "My nose, my mouth is bleeding from the fumes. The fighting just makes it worse."

Beyond simply hindering people's personal modes of transportation, the gas shortage is impeding the recovery efforts as a whole.

Many donation hubs don't have enough gas to distribute their supplies, so the basic necessities that the Hurricane victims so desperately need, such as flashlights, clothing, food and water, despite being stockpiled, have no way of being delivered.

The same distribution crisis is affecting food banks, which also are at a loss as to how to distribute all their food. "This problem with gas is a game changer," said the chief operating officer of the New York City Food Bank to the Huffington Post.

Authorities are making concentrated efforts to try to make the gas crisis a recovery priority.

President Barack Obama ordered the Defense Department to buy huge quantities of gasoline and diesel fuel to be trucked to the gas-deprived region late on Friday.

New Jersey utility PSE&G contacted its state's gas station trade association on Friday to discover which stations had gas and needed power, and declared restoring power to refineries and gas stations a top priority. The same has yet to occur in New York with their utility Consolidated Edison.

According to an assessment by Ralph Bombardiere, head of the New York State Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops, the severe gas shortages will last through the weekend, and the area shouldn't except normally until the end of next week.

Reach reporter Fiona Alfait here.