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Gas Shortages Reported In Katrina's Wake

High Gas Prices Are Yesterday's News

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 31, 2005
Skyrocketing gas prices are yesterday's news. Today's will likely be about gas shortages.

Hurricane Katrina • New Orleans: Three Years Later • The End of the World: Louisiana is Disappearing • Mississippi Sues State Farm Over Katrina Coverage • Katrina's Legacy: A Flood-Damaged Handicap Van • Payback: State Farm Writes Off Mississippi • Judge Nixes State Farm Katrina Settlement • Judge Rules Against State Farm in Katrina Case • Victimized Twice: Hurricane Victims Scammed by Unscrupulous Contractors • New Orleans Refloats Its Cruise Ship Business • One Year Later: To Miss New Orleans --- • Katrina Archives --- What's New? • Continuing coverage of Katrina recovery efforts

Gasoline prices shot up 40 and 50 cents a gallon Wednesday as the effects of Hurricane Katrina began to be felt outside the devastated Gulf Coast. By Wednesday evening there were growing concerns about whether gas would be available at any price.

"We're dealing with one of the worst national disasters in our nation's history," President Bush said after an aerial tour of the area. "Our citizens must understand this storm has disrupted the capacity to make gasoline and to distribute gasoline."

A station in Atlanta raised its price to $5.47 a gallon Wednesday afternoon, over $2.00 more than gas was selling for at other stations. Fox News reported the station jacked up its price in an effort to discourage sales, to preserve its dwindling supply.

In Virginia, a ConsumerAffairs.com reporter was filling up Wednesday evening when all the pumps at the station stopped. A station employee told customers that the tanks had run dry, and placed 'out of gas' signs on all the pumps. The employee said she had no idea when the station would get another supply of fuel.

Various media reports Wednesday evening also told of shortages in Arizona, where Circle K Stores, one of the Phoenix area's largest gas-station operators, ran out of gas at 10 to 15 percent of its 256 service stations in Maricopa County, and in Milwaukee, where several of the city's station's ran out of gas for several hours at the time.

Hurricane Katrina resulted in nine Gulf Coast oil refineries being shut down, with no estimate of when they will be back online. And while the government has ordered the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the oil industry still lacks the capacity to refine it into gasoline.

On Tuesday AAA released a survey saying high gasoline prices had not deterred Labor Day Travel Plans, but escalating events along the fuel chain may make that forecast out of date by the time the weekend arrives.

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