Is your city out of gas?

Gas supplies are lower than normal in the southeastern US, because they had to shut down the Gulf Coast refineries for Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and the area's still recovering from the gas drain caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Last week we were lower than normal. This week we are out of gas. Either gas starts to flow this week to the stations or people run out of gas as soon as their tanks empty. We're all watching the gas line needles on our tanks now. No gas anywhere. I'm going to look again today for gas.

Good news, at least for me for now. I found some gas. The gas station closest to my house had a tanker at it last night. They opened up the regular unleaded pumps. All pumps were busy even though traffic is pretty light on a Sunday morning. They'll probably be out of gas again come evening. It gets you concerned when you drive over 50 miles and don't find any stations with gasoline for sale and you stop and look at all the stations you drive by.

However I may be staying home in the future rather than worry about getting stranded. I hope the situation rapidly improves because I wanted to go on vacation.

completely opposite situation in Columbus OH. Gas prices have dropped 50 cents per gal over the last 2 weeks, 25 cents of that amount coming in the last 3-4 days. Gas now as cheap as it was in the spring, under 3.40 per gal.

Last week, Nashville had a shortage, mainly due to everyone panicking and going to the stations at the same time. 85% of the stations were out. When I finally got some, it was $4.50 and a few days later that same station was selling it for $3.90. The cheapest in the city now is around $3.80.

I left work around 6:00 P.M. tonight. When I got off the interstate I started looking for gas I drove the next 12 miles home without seeing any. Then I spent the next 45 minutes driving around town looking for some. I was about to give it up when I found some. There was only 4 or 5 cars ahead of me. The price was 4.19 gal, prepay with cash inside and a limit of $40. According to the local news this is going to continue for the next two weeks until they get caught up. Until then I am going to shop for gas whenever I get down to 1/2 a tank. And I used to worry about he price!

Things are OK in the Chicago area. But then again it isn't the bustling metropolis that the Atlanta area is...

Plenty of gas in the town I reside in, and they just dropped the price today, down another nickel, to $3.32 a gallon.

Hopefully, the panic searching and topping off will end by soon here in South Carolina. You do that when you stop at several gas stations and don't find it. I saw a video on weather.com where people follow fuel trucks and camp out in their cars at the gas stations for hours waiting for the station to open with fuel. I didn't wait in any line. A few stations in my small town now have gas with no lines. Getting better. I will wait to go on vacation, not due to gas shortage although that is still a concern. Delaying it because I don't want to be in another bike rally. Apparently it is Harley Davidson rally week at the beach this week.

Things like this both amuse and depress me. The shortages are quite literally the inevitable result of political policy. We are at the limits of refining capacity in this country, yet it is politically impossible to build a new refinery, so what do you expect when a refinery shuts down?

What do you expect? I expect more people to go on the news complaining that FEMA should have known about this and been prepared to take care of us. They had years to prepare for this but look, all the gas stations are out of gas and people are wasting gas driving all over just trying to find it.

Well, I might expect this if the situation happened somewhere near New Orleans since that is the complaint I keep hearing on the news whenever something doesn't go right. Instead of blaming the government here, we just complain and put up with it. This is really a situation the individual can't prepare too much for.

I didn't go on vacation this week and I'm planning on staying home and not spending any money like I used to do. That's how I plan on coping with the situation.

casualguy,

It can be planned for, in some cases. Back in the '70's "shortage", I was friends with a fellow that had a trucking company. He was never short of gas and never waited in line. The gas company delivered to his shop whenever he needed fuel. I just had to go by and fill up. Of course I paid him for the gas. So, just find you a friend that has that access.

I haven't noticed any shortages in the Northeast - things seem pretty normal. I just returned from a long trip and traffic seemed pretty normal to me. I was surprised at how many trucks were on the road.

I own a farm in Newnan with 2 500 gallon tanks of diesel... but my cars use gas >.<

I actually haven't had any problems though when I stay at my house in Atlanta - I'm an early riser (5am) and I just pop over to a major station 2 miles away and fill up before the lines form, then back home for breakfast, etc. Inconvenient, but not really a huge interruption.

I haven't waited in line yet, though.

O.

No need for lines if the market was allowed to work. But, I assume most people would prefer to stop the supposely criminal behaviour of price gouging.

ozymandias: Things seem to be improving. I had to drive from PTC to Newnan today. About half of the stations were pumping gas and no long lines. However I have only seen regular gas available. I just talked to my son, who lives in Marietta. He drives a 450hp sports car and has to use the high test stuff. Not available up there. Says that if he has to, he will buy the regular and pour in some kind of additive. My plans to drive to the TUSCL convention in Columbia SC are back on track.

Western NC is really is pretty bad off, don't know any specifics, but I have some family out that way. Thankfully things over here in the east haven't been bad for me.

I've been reading that officials are asking people here not to top off their tanks and not to get gas unless they've used up at least 1/4 of their fuel. I read the gas levels averaged about 50 percent of normal across the state. I believe the Greenville and upstate of South Carolina may have it worse. Someone told me Asheville was out of gas and it I didn't find any at a few Greenville stations either. My small town has some although it's still spotty.

I've noticed people aren't complaining about the $4 dollar price for the gas anymore. I figure gas prices will drop as soon as the fuel problem goes away. Everyone can stay home and let the economy go down here to join up with the rest of the nation and then we won't be having these fuel problems anymore. I know of one gas station that has all three grades of gasoline. At least there weren't any bags over the pumps there.

"What do you expect?"

Well, it would have helped a little if those very same refineries that were mentioned earlier didn't cut back on production because the price of oil/gas was getting "too low"! It's called manipulation people, and frequently it doesn't end up going in our favor. What do you think's going to happen when we end up having MORE oil drilling platforms across a longer portion of the coastline...the exact same coastline that is just as vunerable to hurricanes...

Gas supplies appear to be fine in the Northeast...maybe you guys down South should plan a lil better...who knows...

Detroit has been out of gas for a long time. Oh, you meant petroleum based product?

Columbia, SC had gas when I was there yesterday

I heard all gas stations in my immediate area that were out of gas 2 days ago, got some fuel. However they may not have all grades. I saw today some stations that used to have gas now have bags over their pumps. The situation is improving. I read the refineries and pipelines from the gulf were back online. One refinery has been a bit slow to get back to full operations but it sounds like things are improving. Maybe gas prices will drop back to parity with the rest of the nation in a few weeks. South Carolina used to have prices cheaper than the rest of the nation before Ike hit. I believe our gas taxes are less than many other states.

Thanks rob0411: trip is on.

I'm going to help out with the gas situation. I plan on not leaving town this weekend. Now if almost everyone does the same thing. The gas situation should improve rapidly. The economy will go downhill fast as well but at least there will be gas at the gas stations.

We're actually experiencing a significant drop in gas prices here. The "off brand" places are down in the $3.38 range, and the "brand name" places are in the $3.45 zone, roughly. Some places right by the interstate are still in the $3.60-s. One upshot of the gas price hikes in the last three or five years is, not just higher prices, but also wider ranges among the prices. It used to be normal for an insterstate store to be about .05 cents over the inside-the-city stores; now they're up to .40 cents over!

Gas has been dropping here in the Midwest for a little while. Here in Omaha yesterday, it was $3.09 for midgrade unleaded and I suspect when I get out later, it will be even less.