Gas stations run short amid rush to fill up

Houston Chronicle ^ | Sept. 11, 2008, 11:24PM | KRISTEN HAYS and BRETT CLANTON

[thackney]

A 40 percent spike in fill-ups left some Houston-area gas stations dry Thursday as Hurricane Ike bore down on the Texas Gulf Coast, but gasoline should be available today — though it may be scarce along the most congested evacuation routes.

Anne Peebles, spokeswoman for Shell's retail division, said about 30 percent of Shell stations were out of gas Thursday afternoon, leaving the majority with fuel on hand.

"Those are temporary, rolling outages because the tanker drivers are getting out there and refilling stations," Peebles said.

Once Ike passes, tanker drivers will be ready to restock again — and tankers are on standby in neighboring states to fill the void if the storm damages trucks or terminals in this area.

"That's one of the many lessons we learned from Rita," she said, referring to the frenzied evacuation ahead of that hurricane three years ago, when area stations were drained dry.

This time the outages were less widespread and resulted mostly from bottlenecks for tanker trucks at gasoline terminals. Some truckers waited in line six hours or longer to fill up before they could go restock gas stations.

"The spot outages I've heard of late this afternoon are along some of the evacuation routes," said Chris Newton, president of the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.

"The problem is getting fuel out of the (gasoline) terminals and to these locations," Newton said. "It's not a question of terminals being out of fuel. It's more an issue of tanker trucks getting into terminals with the traffic that's on the road."

For retail customers, tenacity paid off Thursday.

"I just want to be prepared if we have to leave. We're trying to ride it out," said Thuy Danner, who topped off her SUV at a Sam's Club near Friendswood after coming up...

[Thermalseeker]

There were long lines at gas stations in the Chattanooga area yesterday afternoon. Some I saw had 30+ cars waiting and stations were limiting purchases to 10 gallons. I saw one station at a Wal-Mart that had cars lined out into the street waiting to buy gas. Somebody should tell this author that Chattanooga isn't on the evacuation route......

[murron]

I live in a suburb of New Orleans, and went to the movies last night. On my way to the movies, there were two Chevron stations posting Regular at 3.59 gal. On my way home from the movies, one station was $3.69 and the other was $3.79. In just two hours, the prices had jumped, one by 10 cents, the other by twenty cents.

[Kylie_04]

There were people doing the same thing here in mid South Carolina...waiting an hour in line (one 100 cars long according to local news) to fill up because the news reported prices were going to spike. And guess what? This morning, gas is up over 50 cents a gallon all over town. It’s madness.

[kcm.org]

Duh, what gives???

Two months ago, with just the mere Weather Channel mention of the possibilities that hurricanes might strike during hurricanes would cause crude oil to set new highs and hours later that day gasoline dealers would hike prices 10-20 cents/gal?

[kcm.org]

...that hurricanes might strike during hurricane-season... .

[Let's Roll]

Remember that guy* who said God must be a dim because he was sending a hurricane during the GOP convention? Well, looks to me like hurricanes are definitely reminding people to:

DRILL HERE! DRILL NOW!

(*incidentally he's married to the SC dim chairwoman who yesterday said that Palin's primary qualification seemed to be not having an abortion.)

[Sloth]

Yeah, the dumb sheep were trying to implement self-fulfilling prophecies of shortages. For what it’s worth, the stations I passed by this morning on the way in from Hixson appeared to have gas, at prices only slightly above what they were yesterday.

[Thermalseeker]

For what it’s worth, the stations I passed by this morning on the way in from Hixson appeared to have gas, at prices only slightly above what they were yesterday.

There were lines at several stations along Hwy 153 in Hixson yesterday when I was over that way and later I noticed them in Dunlap, too. I didn't think much about it until my wife came home last night and said they were lined out into the street at the Wal-Mart on 153. Then, I saw an article this morning about the same thing going on in Knoxville. I guess I didn't get the memo.....

[MIDad23]

I’m in Knoxville. The owner of a local chain of gas stores (Weigel’s) said that supplies were low because of Gustav, and that they were expecting a shipment Saturday. That got put off to Tuesday because of Ike. They were still expecting to be o.k., but word got out that they were low, and there was a run on gas. I heard rumblings last night and topped off, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

I’m going home to MI for the weekend, and called my wife to ask how things are up I-75, and this shortage seems confined to the SE. She said the President of Marathon was on WJR and said there may be shortages next week nationwide because of the two hurricanes, and we only run an 8-day surplus instead of the 30-day surplus that the industry wants. She thought a lot of what he said sounded like fluff to support the “drill here, drill now” movement. [not that there’s anything wrong with that...]