Wake County businesses create backup plan to handle gas crisis

While North Carolina's gas shortage has impacted residents who have been forced to wait in long lines at the pump, area businesses are also struggling.

Visiting Angels, an in-home senior care provider, is one of many companies that depends on gas to stay in business. A spokesperson said the last few days have been tough.

Each week, 100 Wake County caregivers use their own cars to travel to their client's homes. Each caregiver helps their client with basic tasks, including meals, remembering medication, trips to the grocery store and attending doctors appointments.

"Being in the line of work with the kind of work that we do, not showing up for work is not an option," said Stacey Sokel, a community liaison for Visiting Angels.

Due to the lack of gas, the company, based in Raleigh, created a backup plan.

"It was mandatory that all office personnel have their tanks full of gas if we needed to take our caregivers to their clients," Sokel said. "We also have accounts set up with Uber and other taxi services in order to get our caregivers to their client's homes."

Company officials working to repair the broken pipeline said in a statement that they expect to restart the line Wednesday evening, though it will take several days for fuel supplies to return to normal in markets served by the pipeline.